Turkey's President Sends Sweden's NATO Bid to Parliament for Ratification

[Celerity]

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had been holding out on approval of Sweden’s application. It’s unclear why he is now moving it forward.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/23/world/middleeast/turkey-nato-sweden.html

https://archive.ph/JcZo8

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, left, with Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson of Sweden, right, and Jens Stoltenberg, the NATO secretary general, in Vilnius, Lithuania, in July.Credit...Yves Herman/Reuters

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey signed the protocol approving Sweden’s bid to join the NATO military alliance and sent it to the Turkish Parliament on Monday, according to a brief statement from his office.

It was not immediately clear why Mr. Erdogan, who had refused to officially endorse Sweden’s NATO bid for many months, suddenly decided to back it now, nor when Parliament would vote on it. Parliamentary approval is the final step in the process.

After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year, Sweden and Finland, which both have borders with Russia, applied to join NATO, a process that is subject to approval by all of the alliance’s members. Mr. Erdogan initially refused to back either of them, but later changed his stance on Finland, paving the way for it to join NATO in April. But he continued to hold out on Sweden, accusing it of not doing enough to crack down on Turkish separatists and other Turkish dissidents in Sweden that Turkey considers terrorists.

It remains unclear how swiftly the issue will move through Parliament, where Mr. Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party and its political allies hold a majority. The protocol must first be taken by up the foreign affairs committee, then the full house. In the case of Finland, Turkish lawmakers approved the protocol 13 days after Mr. Erdogan submitted it. Mr. Erdogan’s stance on Sweden has flabbergasted other NATO members, who have privately accused him of using the alliance’s rules for domestic political gains.

snip

Link to tweet

Glad to hear that Turkish President Erdoğan has now handed over the ratification documents to the Turkish Parliament. Now it remains for Parliament to deal with the issue. We look forward to becoming a member of NATO.

Link to tweet

[Drum]

1. Progress!

[RockRaven]

2. What did he finally get? Or did he just give up?

Any ideas?

[Celerity]

4. Turkey will back Sweden's NATO bid if U.S. keeps promise on F-16 sale - Erdogan

https://www.reuters.com/world/turkey-will-back-swedens-nato-bid-if-us-keeps-promise-f-16-sale-erdogan-2023-09-26/

ANKARA, Sept 26 (Reuters) - Turkey's parliament will keep its promise to ratify Sweden's NATO bid if U.S. President Joe Biden's administration paves the way for F-16 jet sales to Ankara, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday, according to Turkish media.

Speaking to reporters on his flight back from Azerbaijan's exclave of Nakhchivan, Erdogan said that Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken discussed Sweden's NATO membership bid last week in New York.

The U.S. administration is linking F-16 fighter jet sales to Turkey with Ankara's ratification of Sweden's bid, Erdogan said.

"If they (the U.S.) keep their promises, our parliament will keep its own promise as well. Turkish parliament will have the final say on Sweden's NATO membership," he said.

[dlk]

3. Potential war in the Middle East...