President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey on Monday signed and sent to Parliament a measure approving Sweden’s bid to join the NATO military alliance, according to a brief statement from his office.
It was not immediately clear why Mr. Erdogan, who had refused to officially endorse Sweden’s NATO bid for many months, suddenly decided to back it now, nor when Parliament would vote on it. Parliamentary approval is the final step in the process.
After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year, Sweden and Finland, which respectively have maritime and land borders with Russia, applied to join NATO, a process that is subject to approval by all of the alliance’s members.
Mr. Erdogan initially refused to back either of them, but later changed his stance on Finland, paving the way for it to join NATO in April. But he continued to hold out on Sweden, accusing it of not doing enough to crack down on Turkish separatists and other Turkish dissidents in Sweden that Turkey considers terrorists.
It remains unclear how swiftly the issue will move through Parliament, where Mr. Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party and its political allies hold a majority. The measure must first be taken by up the foreign affairs committee, then the full house. In the case of Finland, Turkish lawmakers approved a similar protocol 13 days after Mr. Erdogan submitted it.
Mr. Erdogan’s stance on Sweden has flabbergasted other NATO members, who have privately accused him of using the alliance’s rules for domestic political gains.
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