Erdoğan approves Sweden’s NATO membership decision
President Tayyip Erdoğan has signed the decision regarding Sweden’s accession protocol to NATO. The protocol for Sweden’s NATO membership was discussed in the General Assembly of the Parliament. At the end of the discussions, the proposal was accepted with the votes of 287 out of 346 deputies who participated in the voting. While 55 deputies voted against the proposal, four deputies abstained.
Following this decision in the Parliament, the law stating that Sweden’s accession protocol to NATO has been approved was published in the Official Gazette’s duplicate issue.
Erdoğan also approved the Presidential Decree regarding Sweden’s accession protocol to NATO by signing it.
What had happened?
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Sweden and Finland had applied for NATO membership, but Turkey had expressed ‘concerns’ about the candidacy of the two countries.
At the NATO summit in Madrid, Spain in June 2022, Turkey withdrew its objections to the NATO membership of the two countries, and in return, Sweden and Finland stated that they would take steps to address Turkey’s concerns, particularly regarding the extradition of individuals labeled as ‘terror suspects’ by Turkey and combating terrorism.
Tensions arose in relations due to incidents such as the permission given for the Danish-Swedish far-right activist Rasmus Paludan’s Quran burning protest in front of the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm, the lack of investigation into the protest in Sweden featuring an Erdoğan effigy, and the non-extradition of individuals like Bülent Keneş, the former editor-in-chief of Today’s Zaman, to Turkey.
President Tayyip Erdoğan then stated that Finland’s membership could be approved, but Sweden should not expect support.
Thus, the bill approving Finland’s accession protocol to NATO was passed in the Grand National Assembly of Turkey. Finland later became a NATO member officially. However, Sweden’s membership was put on hold.
On July 10, 2023, Erdoğan met with NATO Secretary-General Stoltenberg and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson at the NATO summit in the capital of Lithuania, where the green light was given for Sweden’s membership.
Subsequently, last month, the long-awaited accession protocol of Sweden was approved by the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Parliament.
For a country to join NATO, all current members must approve it. Among NATO countries, only Turkey and Hungary had not approved Sweden’s membership. With Turkey’s approval, attention has turned to Hungary.
