Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced on Friday that Turkey would approve Finland’s application to join NATO. The announcement came at the end of an official meeting organized in Ankara for this very purpose, in the presence of the President of Finland Sauli Niinisto. Erdogan said he has activated the ratification procedures and hopes that this will happen before the May elections.
Finland and Sweden had applied to join NATO in May 2022: the governments of the two countries had announced that they would join together, mainly for symbolic reasons and mutual solidarity, but in recent days it had appeared increasingly probable that Finland would join first. Sweden’s candidacy is in fact blocked by the lack of approval from Turkey, which accuses it of hosting and supporting representatives of some Kurdish organizations, in particular the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which the Turkish government considers terrorist organisations. Even Hungary, among the 30 NATO member states, has yet to approve the entry of Finland and Sweden, but the parliamentary debate should take place by the end of the month.
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