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Turkish parliament’s approval of Finland’s joining NATO comes in effect

Therefore, Finland has obtained legal grounds for joining the alliance

ANKARA, April 1. /TASS/. The decision of Turkey’s Grand National Assembly (parliament) to give green light to Finland’s NATO Accession Protocol has officially entered into force, as it was published by the government newspaper Resmi Gazete on Saturday.

On Thursday, at its plenary session the Turkish parliament approved a bill to ratify Finland’s bid. All 276 lawmakers present in the parliamentary hall voted in favor. Therefore, Finland has obtained legal grounds for joining the alliance.

In May 2022, Finland and Sweden applied for NATO membership, but their entry bid was stonewalled by Ankara. Turkey demanded that the Nordic countries designate Kurdish organizations as terrorist and extradite those to Turkey who are accused of terrorist activity or aiding and abetting the attempted coup in 2016. In order to settle these disagreements in the run-up to the NATO summit in 2022, the three countries signed a joint memorandum. The document contains a roadmap of practical measures that the two Nordic countries are to take if they want to join the military alliance.

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