Turkey's parliament ratifies Sweden's accession to NATO

Turkish approval leaves Hungary as the last holdout to block the Scandinavian country from joining the Western military alliance.

Provided by Deutsche Welle

Turkey’s parliament approved Sweden’s entry into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) on Tuesday.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is expected to sign it into law within a few days, leaving Hungary as the only NATO member state not to have approved Sweden’s membership.

Sweden and Finland applied to join NATO in 2022 in response to Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.

Finland joined the Western military alliance in April last year. However, Turkey and Hungary used its power of veto to reject Sweden’s application, blocking the Scandinavian country from joining.

Erdogan has been able to pressure Sweden into taking a tougher stance against Kurdish groups based in Stockholm that Ankara views as “terrorists.”

Sweden’s membership would make the entire Baltic coastline NATO territory, except for the Russian coast and its exclave Kaliningrad.

This is a developing story, more to follow…