Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, submitted yesterday to the National Assembly a bill to ratify Sweden’s accession to NATO, the Turkish presidency announced.

The Protocol on Sweden's Accession to NATO was signed by President @RTErdogan on October 23, 2023 and referred to the Grand National Assembly of Türkiye.

— Presidency of the Republic of Türkiye (@trpresidency) October 23, 2023

No other details are included in the announcement.

Last July, Erdogan lifted the veto he had placed on Sweden’s NATO membership, but clarified that final approval would be given by the Turkish parliament after the summer recess. The National Assembly resumed its work on October 1.

Erdogan, who spoke by phone Saturday with NATO Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg, has been pressing Stockholm all summer to take action to stop the activists, who are burning copies of the Koran and poisoning relations between the two countries.

At the same time, Ankara claimed that the Swedish authorities were showing “tolerance” towards Kurds who have taken refuge in the country and demanded the extradition of dozens of them, accusing them of being members of terrorist organizations.

Turkey and Hungary are the only countries, out of a total of 31 NATO members, that have not yet ratified Sweden’s membership. Ankara separated Finland’s request from Sweden’s and approved the former’s entry on March 30.

Swedish Prime Minister, Ulf Kristerson, welcomed the news.

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