President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Friday that Turkey will start the process of ratifying Finland’s Nato membership bid in parliament after the country took concrete steps to keep its promises.
In a news conference with his Finnish counterpart, Erdoğan said Turkey will continue discussions with Sweden on terrorism-related issues and that Sweden’s Nato membership bid would depend directly on measures taken.
Reuters report Erdoğan said he had given a list to Sweden of “120 terrorist” which they were to repatriate to Turkey, and they had failed to do so.
Sauli Niinistö, Finland’s president, said that it had understood earlier that Turkey would approve Finland’s bid and “this is important for Finland”. But he also said “Finnish membership of Nato is not complete without Sweden.”
Erdoğan said he hoped the process would be complete before May’s elections.
English (United States)