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President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has submitted Sweden’s Nato accession bid for ratification by Turkey’s parliament, bringing the Scandinavian country one step closer to joining the western military alliance.
Erdoğan’s decision was announced by Turkey’s communications directorate on Monday, kicking off the process for the country’s parliament to debate and ratify Sweden’s Nato membership.
The Turkish president vowed in July to remove his objections to Sweden joining the bloc, but the process has been held up by parliament’s summer recess and persistent concerns in Ankara that Stockholm has not done enough to counter terrorism and Islamophobia within its borders.
Sweden passed a new anti-terrorism law this year in an attempt to assuage Turkish demands, and in July a Swedish court sentenced a Turkish man to jail for funding the Kurdistan Workers’ party, a separatist group that has fought a violent insurgency in Turkey for decades.
This month, a Swedish man for the first time was convicted on hate speech charges for setting a copy of the Koran on fire. The verdict came after several Koran burnings in Sweden in recent months triggered a powerful backlash from Erdoğan and his government.
Turkey’s parliament is controlled by a coalition that is led by Erdoğan’s Justice and Development party, and analysts said the president’s approval is crucial in finalising the ratification process. Turkey and Hungary are the only two Nato members that have not so far approved Sweden’s accession to the bloc and Budapest is broadly expected to follow Ankara’s lead on the ratification decision.
This is a developing story . . .
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