Turkish parliament is ready to ratify the protocol on Finland’s accession to NATO

The protocol on Finland’s accession to the North Atlantic Treaty (NATO) was signed by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and presented to the Speaker of the Turkish Grand National Assembly. This was reported by the Anadolu agency.

The report of the TGNA (Grand National Assembly of Turkey) states that the Bill on the approval of the Protocol on Finland’s accession to the North Atlantic Treaty was signed by the Chairman of the Turkish Grand National Assembly Mustafa Shentop and submitted to the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Turkish Grand National Assembly.

The rationale states that Turkey “supports an open door policy”:

“A Permanent Joint Mechanism has been established to monitor the specific implementation of the obligations by Finland and Sweden arising from the Tripartite Memorandum. Finland in its Parliament approved the Law on the Ratification of the Accession Protocol on March 1, 2023.”

“The Permanent Joint Mechanism, which was attended by members of our delegation consisting of officials from the Office of the President and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministries of National Defense, the Interior and Justice, as well as the President of the National Intelligence Organization, was held on August 26, 2022 in Finland, 24-25 November 2022 in Sweden and March 9, 2023 in Brussels.”

“At this stage, given the commitments set out in the Tripartite Memorandum, our bilateral relationship with Finland and the current partnership and interoperability of this country with NATO, it is believed that Finland’s membership in NATO will contribute to Euro-Atlantic security, including the security of Turkey.”

“In view of these considerations, it is considered expedient to ratify the Protocol on Finland’s accession to the North Atlantic Treaty.”