Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan submitted Sweden’s request for NATO membership to the Turkish Parliament on Monday, after 17 months of blockage, the Turkish presidency said.
“Sweden’s NATO accession protocol was signed on October 23, 2023 by President Erdoğan and referred to the Grand National Assembly of Turkey,” the presidency said in a message published on the social network X.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson welcomed “good news” on X: “It is now up to Parliament to deal with the issue. We are delighted that the country becomes a member of NATO. »
The Secretary General of the Atlantic Alliance, Jens Stoltenberg, said he hoped to welcome Sweden “very soon”, a membership which he said would make NATO “stronger and more secure”.
In July, President Erdoğan lifted his veto on Sweden’s accession to the Alliance, specifying however that the decision would be up to the Turkish Parliament, which resumed its work on 1er October after their summer suspension. Mr. Erdoğan, who spoke by telephone on Saturday with the head of NATO, has continued in recent months to put pressure on Sweden to take measures against the desecrations of the Koran which have soured relations between Ankara and Stockholm. At the same time, Turkey criticizes the Swedish authorities for their alleged leniency towards Kurdish activists who have taken refuge on their soil and is demanding the extradition of dozens of them.
Turkey is, with Hungary, the last of the 31 NATO member states not to have ratified Sweden’s membership.
For their part, the United States welcomed on Monday Turkey’s decision to submit to its Parliament Sweden’s request for membership in NATO, hoping that integration would now take place “as quickly as possible “.
“This decision is welcome,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters, saying he hoped that membership would be approved quickly by the Turkish Parliament.