The Turkish Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee approved Finland's NATO membership bid on Thursday.
Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee started discussions on the approval of Finland's membership earlier in the day. The General Assembly of the Turkish Parliament still needs to approve the bill for Finland to become a member of the military bloc.
Sweden's parliament approved its NATO bid on Wednesday, but Turkish officials say they will not approve its membership for failing to fulfill the terms of a trilateral memorandum signed in the summer.
Ankara has been swarmed by pleas from Swedish, Finnish as well as NATO officials to greenlight the membership bids of the Nordic countries since they applied to join the bloc last year, spurred by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Especially in the past three months, as the widespread presence of members and sympathizers of terrorist groups like the PKK, its Syrian offshoot the YPG and the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) aroused security concerns for Türkiye.
A trilateral memorandum the sides inked in Madrid last June won Ankara concrete promises it had demanded, especially in counterterrorism laws, terrorist extraditions and the lifting of an arms embargo. The deal envisages Finland and Sweden, as future NATO allies, to show full solidarity and cooperation with Türkiye in the fight against terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, against all threats to its national security.
After a meeting in Ankara last week with Finnish President Sauli Niinisto, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced that they started the ratification process for Finland's admission to the alliance. Erdoğan cited the Nordic country's efforts to keep its promises as part of the memorandum. He also expressed hope that Finland's NATO membership would be ratified before presidential and parliamentary elections, which are set for May 14. Meanwhile, Erdoğan noted Türkiye is not ready to approve Sweden's bid yet, saying Sweden has not responded positively to Ankara's extradition requests for terrorists and has embraced them. "Türkiye will continue to hold discussions with Sweden on terrorism-related issues, Stockholm's NATO membership will directly rely on their measures," he said.