Turkey will confirm his entry in the coming weeks Finland for NATO. Sweden will have to keep waiting. This Friday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced at a joint press conference with his Finnish counterpart, Sauli Niinistö, who traveled to the Turkish capital, Ankara, to receive the news that has been circulating for several years. year. day. Following this statement, the other NATO country Hungary, which has not yet approved the participation of both Nordic countries, claimed that, after several delays, it would vote for Finland’s accession on March 27, leaving Sweden on the sidelines. For a country to become a member of the Alliance, all parliaments of all member states must approve entry this new state.
“Turkey is one of the countries that most vigorously defends NATO’s open door policy, but we believe that our safety must be consideredThis is how we marked the trilateral agreement we signed with Sweden and Finland in Madrid,” said Erdogan, referring to the agreement reached by the Turkish, Finnish and Swedish governments at the Atlantic Alliance summit held in Madrid last summer. was able to start.
“Since that signing, Finland took concrete steps, so today we decided to start the process of our Parliament approving Finland’s entry. Let’s hope this turns out to be something beneficial for our country and the entire Alliance. We believe Finland has and will have it. very important role On strengthening NATO,” continued the Turkish president.
Now, in Erdogan’s words, the TGNA is expected to make this approval in the coming weeks. Time is running out because Turkey will hold parliamentary and presidential elections on May 14 and the lower house will be dissolved in mid-April. Therefore, Finnish approval is expected before this date; Erdogan says Sweden should wait.
“our neighbor”
Niinistö told Erdogan, “This step is very important for Finland, so thank you. But we have a neighbor, Sweden, we share with him much more than goals and desires… I have a feeling that Our NATO membership would not be complete without them.. We have an infinite number of connections with Sweden; we are sister countries I hope at the Vilnius summit NATO will already have 32 members.”
This summit to be held in July will be after the Turkish elections and is set as a psychological boundary for the Anatolian country to finally approve Sweden’s accession to the Atlantic Alliance. Many experts believe that Turkey’s ban on the Scandinavian country is due to: Erdogan is trying to present himself as a strong man before Europe in his election campaign..
The task of convincing the Turkish president is expected to be complex, if it continues after the elections. “We have red lines” fight against him terrorismand we deliver to Sweden a list of 124 terrorists we want extradited to our country. But they didn’t. Of course, the Swedish prime minister may be a very nice person, but the important thing for us is the concrete steps taken. And they didn’t,” complained Erdogan.
Sweden adapted the anti-terrorism law to Turkish demands, as Turkey demanded in the Madrid Trilateral Agreement, but the Stockholm Government has declared many times that it cannot deliver the so-called “terrorists” demanded by Turkey for justice. The Swedish authority decides on extraditions and considers that the deportees will not receive a fair trial if they are sent to Turkey.