Turkish Parliamentary Committee ratified Sweden NATO protocol

The Turkish Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee approved Sweden’s NATO membership protocol at its meeting on December 26.

Once the approval is voted by the General Assembly of the Turkish Grand National Assembly, Türkiye will be deemed to have ratified Sweden’s NATO membership.

Political sources say that the plenary vote is likely to take place on Thursday, December 28, and that it will enter into force before the end of 2023. Some sources, however, argues that the parliament will wait for the US to take a step on the sale of F-16s to Türkiye before the bill comes to the General Assembly.

Following Russia’s war against Ukraine in 2022, Sweden and Finland requested NATO membership on the grounds of the Russian threat. In NATO, where decisions are taken unanimously, Türkiye had refused approval first to both countries and then only to Sweden due to anti-terrorism criteria. Hungary also withheld its approval for different reasons, but in coordination with Türkiye.

Sweden’s NATO protocol and F-16 sell to Türkiye

President Tayyip Erdoğan, previously insisted that they were waiting for Sweden to fulfill its promises on the PKK and FETÖ before lifting Ankara’s veto over Sweden’s NATO bid.

However on December 14, he quoted US President Joe Biden saying “You approve Sweden’s membership, and I will try to get the F-16 sale passed by Congress,” first time openly suggest that the issue has become a diplomatic discussion agenda between two countries.

Answering Anadolu Agency’s questions after the vote in the Foreign Affairs Committee, a US State Department official said that they were satisfied with the result and were waiting for the process to be completed, and that Biden had previously expressed his support for the F-16.

Therefore, all eyes are now on whether the US will take a new step and when the Swedish resolution will be voted on in the Parliament’s General Assembly.

Who approved it?

There was talk in diplomatic circles that the PKK’s killing 12 Turkish soldiers in Iraq on December 22, the day it was announced that Sweden’s membership would be discussed by the Commission, might cause the Commission to postpone its decision again. However, the Commission approved the Erdoğan-signed bill with the votes of AKP, CHP and MHP members. IYI Party and Saadet Party deputies voted against, while DEM Party did not participate in the vote.

Briefing the deputies before the vote, Deputy Foreign Minister Burak Akçapar said that Sweden had taken steps, including a constitutional amendment, in response to Türkiye’s objections to the fight against terrorism. Commission Chairman Fuat Oktay described Sweden’s blocking of the “Kurdish Red Crescent”, which finances terrorism, and sending a prosecutor to Ankara for cooperation as “positive steps” since the meeting on November 16, when no decision was taken.