ANKARA, March 23. /TASS/. The Turkish parliament's foreign affairs commission on Thursday approved a bill on Finland's NATO membership. It now has to be approved by the general assembly by March 26, the TRT TV channel reported.

The protocol was sent to parliament by the country’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. On March 17, he announced Ankara's readiness to ratify Finland's bid to join NATO.

In May 2022, Finland and Sweden applied for NATO membership, however, their entry bid was immediately stonewalled by Ankara who demanded that the Nordic countries declare Kurdish organizations to be terrorist ones, extradite persons to Turkey, who are accused of terrorist activity or aiding and abetting the 2016 coup d’etat attempt, along with removing bans on arms supplies to Turkey.

Ankara later reconsidered its attitude toward Helsinki, noting that it generally complied with the terms of the agreements under the memorandum on counterterrorism signed with Finland and Sweden. Turkey still has serious grievances against Sweden. Ankara says Stockholm is not yet ready to join NATO.