According to information received by , Turkey would probably ratify Finland’s NATO membership on Wednesday.
Turkey is the only NATO country that has not ratified Finland’s membership. A reporter following Turkey’s ratification process in Ankara Mika Mäkeläinen says that ratification can be expected in the next few days.
– However, according to a diplomatic source, the most likely date for ratification would be Wednesday of this week. Parliament has an extra long work week here because of the upcoming elections, so the ratification can also take place over the weekend or next week, says Mäkeläinen.
Mäkeläinen adds that full certainty about the date of ratification can only be obtained just before the parliamentary session.
– It is known for sure at the very last minute, because the parliament here reports on the progress of the legislative work day by day.
The acceptance of Finland’s membership is likely to be a matter of debate, as the members of parliament and the president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Both the AKP party and the opposition are mostly in favor of accepting Finland’s membership, says Mäkeläinen.
Mäkeläinen adds that Turkey’s delay at this point shows that Finland’s NATO membership is ultimately not very important to Turkey.
– The elections are approaching and it forces MPs to primarily take care of the matters most important to the voters. Today, the parliament talked about the minimum wage, social security and pension benefits. In that case, foreign policy matters receive less attention.
After Turkey has ratified Finland’s membership, the Secretary General of NATO invites Finland to join the North Atlantic Treaty.
Then the Finnish representative travels to Washington to deposit the application papers with the US State Department. It is not yet known who will act as Finland’s representative.
After this, Finland will become a full member of NATO.