The Parliament of Turkey has ratified late on Thursday night the access protocol of Finland to the Atlantic Alliance, with which Helsinki already has the approval of all NATO allies. So, end to months of blockade by Ankara that demanded conditions to give its green light to this expansion of the Atlantic Alliance.

After an intense session in the Turkish Grand National Assembly that lasted for hours, well into the night, Turkish parliamentarians have given the ‘green light’ for Finland to join NATO, the Anadolu news agency reported.

With this vote and following similar steps taken at the beginning of the week by the Hungarian Parliament, Finland has already received the favorable vote of all the member states of the Atlantic Alliance, which places the Nordic country on the verge of entering the bloc.

Once all the members of the Alliance and the candidates have approved the accession protocols, the approved documents must be sent to the United States, where they are deposited with the Government. The applicant country only becomes a member of NATO when Washington has all the documents.

Türkiye, the main stumbling block

Finland and its neighbor Sweden They jointly requested their entry into NATO in May, an entry that the Atlantic Alliance was betting would be ‘express’ and ready for the Madrid summit. However, Turkish reluctance due to the alleged collusion of the Swedes and Finns with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the People’s Protection Units (YPG) frustrated immediate processing.

That summit of NATO leaders in Madrid helped the Swedish, Finnish and Turkish leaders reach an agreement in which the Scandinavians agreed to cooperate in the fight against terrorism in exchange for Ankara unlocking the path to its accession.

Sweden, not at the moment

Turkey ended up appreciating the steps taken by Finland and committing to put its entry into NATO to a vote.not so that of Sweden, of those who consider that they have not complied with the commitments acquired. In addition, a series of protests in Stockholm against Erdogan and Islam further heated the situation at the beginning of February.

In this context, and although at first Finland planned to join the Atlantic Alliance hand in hand with its neighbor and main ally, finally He did not see with bad eyes to advance alone on his way to the bloc due to the deadlock in the Swedish case.

The capital of Belgium, Brussels, will host next week a new summit of foreign ministers of the Member States of the Atlantic Alliance to which Finland could attend as the 31st member of the block.