'Great Palestine Rally' and Sweden's NATO accession protocol
Daily SabahOct 25, 2023
Turkey's parliamentary foreign affairs committee delayed a vote concerning Sweden's application to NATO on Thursday, with Chairman Fuat Oktay claiming that lawmakers were in need of being "fully convinced" to approve the matter.
This comes as legislators from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's ruling party submitted a motion for a postponement, requesting further clarification on some issues. Oktay told reporters that the still-unscheduled upcoming session may involve the Swedish ambassador.
By initiating the parliamentary process to potentially approve Sweden's NATO bid, Erdoğan has simply opened decision-making to the legislative rather than endorsing a rubber-stamp process as many had hoped. Turkey will continue to deliberate on the matter, taking into consideration whether Sweden has reassured Ankara to an acceptable extent and what relationship Turkey wishes to hold with the West.
Turkey continues to hold out against Sweden's NATO bid in an attempt to apply further pressure on the US to supply the country with F-16 fighter jets, a topic that has not yet even made it to America's Senate. A year and a half after its application, Sweden continues to be unnecessarily frustrated by external and unrelated politics.
There's a 25% chance that Sweden will join NATO before 2024, according to the Metaculus prediction community.