Turkish Parliament ratified Finland's accession to NATO
The Turkish parliament unanimously ratified on Thursday evening Finland's accession to NATO, which had been blocked since May last year, a few days after a similar vote by Hungarian MPs, AFP reports on Friday, quoted by Digi24.ro.
The Finnish application, now approved by all 30 NATO member states, was ratified by the votes of 276 MEPs, according to the live televised vote.
Ankara continues to block Sweden's application, submitted at the same time as Finland last year in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Finland, forced to respect Moscow-imposed neutrality after its war with the Soviet Union during World War II, shares the longest European border with Russia (1,340 kilometres) after Ukraine.
Turkey was the last North Atlantic Alliance member still to ratify the Nordic country's accession after Monday's vote by parliamentarians in Budapest, according to AFP, quoted by Agerpres. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has blocked Finland and Sweden from joining NATO since May 2022. Ankara has accused Sweden in particular of passivity towards Kurdish "terrorists" taking refuge in the country, demanding extraditions over which the government does not have the final say. So Turkey continues to object to Helsinki.
"There is no positive action taken by Sweden regarding the list of terrorists," President Erdogan said on Friday, citing more than 120 extradition requests made by Ankara.
