By Ali Kemal Akan
PRAGUE (AA) - Turkish lawmakers will decide on Sweden's NATO accession protocol as soon as possible, said Türkiye’s parliament speaker on Tuesday.
Numan Kurtulmus told Anadolu that they will send the accession protocol to the Foreign Affairs Commission when he gets back to Türkiye from the Czech capital Prague.
“I hope that it will come to the General Assembly … as soon as possible and our deputies will make their decisions,” he said after attending the Second Parliamentary Summit of the Crimea Platform in Prague.
After Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday signed the accession protocol and sent it to parliament, Sweden welcomed the news.
Finland and Sweden applied for NATO membership soon after Russia launched a war in Ukraine in February 2022.
Türkiye previously approved Finland's membership to NATO but had said it was waiting for Sweden to abide by a trilateral memorandum signed in June 2022 to address Ankara's security concerns.
Turkish officials have repeatedly stressed that it is up to Turkish lawmakers to decide to ratify Sweden’s accession or not.
All members of NATO – including Türkiye, a member for over 70 years – must approve any new members joining the alliance.
*Writing by Gozde Bayar