Turkey’s president submits bill to ratify Sweden’s Nato membership

Social Media · October 24, 2023

Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has removed one of the final hurdles blocking Sweden from joining Nato by submitting a bill approving membership to parliament for ratification.

The move on Monday was in line with a commitment Erdoğan made to Nato at its summit in July when he said he would send the bill to parliament for ratification when parliament restarted in October.

The bill’s passage through parliament should be a formality, but Erdoğan has a track record of holding out on Sweden’s application to extract concessions from the US, including the sale of F-16s to Ankara – a deal that has been held up in the US Senate.

The Turkish leader has also been demanding that Sweden tighten up on the extradition of Kurdish asylum seekers living in Sweden. Turkish officials have insisted the steps Sweden had taken to clamp down on the outlawed Kurdistan Workers party militia were insufficient.

In a sign of real movement, the Turkish parliament on Monday moved the accession bill forward.

“The Protocol on Sweden’s NATO Accession was signed by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on October 23, 2023 and referred to the Grand National Assembly of Turkey,” the presidency wrote on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, without elaborating.

Turkey and Hungary are the only two EU members whose legislatures have yet to sign off on Sweden’s accession.

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