ANKARA, Turkey (AP) \u2014 Sweden edged closer toward joining NATO on Tuesday after the Turkish parliament\u2019s foreign affairs committee greenlighted a protocol for the Nordic country\u2019s membership in the military alliance.<\/p>\n
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan dropped his objection to Sweden\u2019s membership during a NATO summit in July, but it took him several months to send the bill to parliament for ratification and weeks for the parliamentary committee to give its consent.<\/p>\n
TURKEY HIKES KEY INTEREST RATE IN BID TO STEM INFLATION<\/strong><\/p>\n The long-delayed protocol now needs to be approved by the full general assembly and it remains to be seen how quickly the issue will be taken up by the floor.<\/p>\n Sweden and Finland abandoned their decades-long neutrality and sought membership in NATO amid heightened security concerns following Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Finland became NATO\u2019s 31st member earlier this year, after Turkey\u2019s parliament ratified its bid.<\/p>\n Hungary, the only other NATO holdout on Sweden, has not announced when the country\u2019s ratification may occur.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s a look at the issues that have delayed Sweden\u2019s entry into NATO, why Turkey finally agreed to the bid and what to expect next:<\/p>\n WHY HAS TURKEY DELAYED APPROVING SWEDEN\u2019S NATO BID?<\/p>\n Turkey\u2019s opposition to Swedish membership in NATO stemmed from its belief that the Nordic country has been too soft toward supporters of Kurdish militants and other groups in Sweden that Ankara views as security threats. These include people associated with the Kurdistan Workers\u2019 Party or PKK, which has waged a 39-year insurgency in Turkey, and people with alleged links to a coup attempt in 2016 against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan\u2019s government.<\/p>\n Turkey appears poised to allow Sweden to join the NATO bloc.<\/span> <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Turkey, Sweden and Finland reached an agreement last year to tackle Ankara\u2019s security concerns and Sweden subsequently took steps to tighten its anti-terrorism laws, making support for extremist organizations punishable by up to eight years in prison.<\/p>\n But a series of anti-Turkey and anti-Islam protests held in Stockholm, some of which involved the burning of the Quran, has also angered Erdogan\u2019s government and the Turkish public. Although these demonstrations were condemned by the Swedish government, the Turkish government criticized Sweden \u2014 which has laws protecting free speech \u2014 for allowing displays of anti-Muslim sentiment.<\/p>\n WHAT MADE TURKEY LIFT ITS OBJECTIONS?<\/p>\n While Sweden strengthened its antiterrorism laws to address Ankara\u2019s security concerns, NATO agreed to establish a special coordinator for counterterrorism and appointed Assistant Secretary General Tom Goffus to the position.<\/p>\n NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said at the alliance\u2019s summit meeting in July that Sweden had agreed “to support actively the efforts to reinvigorate Turkey\u2019s EU accession process.” Sweden announced it would seek improved customs arrangements and take steps to implement visa-free European travel for Turkish citizens.<\/p>\n Turkey\u2019s EU membership talks came to a standstill in 2018 because of the country\u2019s democratic backsliding and poor record on human rights.<\/p>\n Earlier this month, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan openly linked Sweden’s NATO membership to Ankara’s efforts to purchase U.S.-made F-16 fighter jets and also called on Canada and other NATO allies to lift arms embargoes on Turkey.<\/p>\n During Tuesday’s debate at the parliamentary committee, opposition legislator Oguz Kaan Salici questioned whether the government had received assurances from the United States concerning the F-16s’ sale.<\/p>\n U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration backs Turkey’s F-16 request but within the U.S. Congress there is strong opposition to selling arms to Turkey. Turkey wants to buy 40 new F-16 fighter jets and modernization kits for its existing fleet.<\/p>\n WHAT HAPPENS NOW?<\/p>\n The approval by the parliamentary committee paves the way for Sweden\u2019s accession protocol to be debated and ratified by the general assembly. It would then have to be signed off by Erdogan to come into effect.<\/p>\n It was not clear when the full assembly would debate the bill.<\/p>\n Erdogan\u2019s ruling party and its allies command a majority in the 600-seat parliament. However, Erdogan has said the decision rests with lawmakers. His ruling party\u2019s nationalist allies remain uneasy with Sweden\u2019s membership and accuse NATO members of indifference toward the PKK threat to Turkey.<\/p>\n This week, Kurdish militants attempted to infiltrate a Turkish base in northern Iraq, killing 12 soldiers in two days of clashes.<\/p>\n Islamist parties, frustrated by what they perceive to be Western nations\u2019 silence toward Israel\u2019s military actions in Gaza, may vote against the bill.<\/p>\n WHAT ABOUT HUNGARY?<\/p>\n Hungary\u2019s governing Fidesz party \u2014 led by populist Prime Minister Viktor Orb\u00e1n, who is widely considered one of Russian President Vladimir Putin\u2019s only allies in the EU \u2014 has stalled Sweden\u2019s NATO bid since July 2022, alleging that Swedish politicians have told “blatant lies” about the condition of Hungary\u2019s democracy.<\/p>\n Yet neither Orb\u00e1n nor his senior officials have indicated what kind of redress they require from Stockholm to allay their reservations over Sweden joining the military alliance.<\/p>\n Some critics have alleged that Hungary is using its potential veto power over Sweden\u2019s accession as a tool to leverage concessions from the European Union, which has frozen billions in funds to Budapest over concerns over minority rights and the rule of law.<\/p>\n CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP<\/strong><\/p>\n Hungarian officials have said repeatedly that their country will not be the last NATO member to endorse Sweden\u2019s bid. But Ankara\u2019s move toward ratification suggests that the time for further holdups may be running out.<\/p>\n Some opposition politicians in Hungary \u2014 who have argued for immediate approval of Sweden\u2019s bid \u2014 believe that Orb\u00e1n\u2019s party is following Ankara\u2019s timetable and will vote to approve once it seems clear that Turkey will imminently do the same.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n[ad_2]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [ad_1] ANKARA, Turkey (AP) \u2014 Sweden edged closer toward joining NATO on Tuesday after the Turkish parliament\u2019s foreign affairs committee greenlighted a protocol for the Nordic country\u2019s membership in the military alliance. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan dropped his objection to Sweden\u2019s membership during a NATO summit in July, but it took him several months …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17213,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17212"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17212\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Turkey](\"https:\/\/static.foxnews.com\/foxnews.com\/content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Turkey-Sweden.gif\")
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