VILNIUS, July 12 (from the special envoy of , Víctor Tuda) –
The President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, assured this Wednesday that the ratification of Turkey’s accession will go to the Turkish Parliament in October once it resumes its activity after the summer recess.
“Parliament is currently closed and it will deal with the matter when it resumes its sessions in October,” the Turkish president said at a press conference after the NATO summit in Lithuania.
In any case, he has defended that the Turkish legislators will closely follow the process with Sweden, after Ankara lifted its veto on the eve of the Vilnius summit, agreeing on new cooperation mechanisms with Stockholm in terms of security and the commitment that Sweden will support the revival of Turkey’s accession to the EU.
“There are several international agreements and many legislative proposals that need to be discussed. We address them in order of importance. But our goal is to finish this process as soon as possible,” Erdogan explained about the prospect of Sweden becoming NATO’s 32nd ally. .
In any case, the alliance has avoided setting deadlines for membership and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has insisted that it is now in the hands of the Turkish Parliament to manage ratification. “This is a clear commitment and President Erdogan has made it clear that it will happen as soon as possible,” he said after forging the deal between the Swedes and the Turks late on Monday.
Turkey has blocked the ratification of Sweden’s accession to NATO, citing a lack of cooperation on anti-terrorism. A year ago, at the Madrid summit, he linked his approval to a series of Stockholm commitments to deal with Kurdish terrorism.
In any case, Sweden is expected to complete its accession more than a year after starting the process together with Finland, which was already accepted by the allies last April, after circumventing the Turkish veto and leaving Sweden behind.
