Turkey has officially notified NATO that the approval process for Sweden's NATO membership will not be completed in time for the country's acceptance ceremony at the upcoming meeting of alliance foreign ministers, as reported by Reuters, according to two sources familiar with the matter.
The Turkish parliamentary foreign affairs commission postponed the vote on Sweden's NATO membership last week, choosing to hold additional discussions on the matter.
The commission is expected to resume its discussion on Tuesday or Wednesday, sources said. NATO foreign ministers are set to meet in Brussels on November 28-29, a meeting some had hoped would mark Sweden's entry into the alliance.
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Both Sweden and Finland requested to join NATO in May of last year following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. However, NATO requires unanimous approval from existing members, and Turkey, a strategically important member, was not happy.
Turkey claims that Sweden supports and provides protection to the PKK, a Kurdish separatist movement. Sweden has denied the allegations, stating its support for Kurds not affiliated with the PKK. PKK is considered a terrorist group by the European Union and the United States.
Concerning Finland, Turkey's opposition appears more by association. Although Finland has a smaller Kurdish population than Sweden, its foreign policy aligns with Sweden's. Finland has designated the PKK as a terrorist organization but, along with Sweden and other EU countries, halted weapon sales to Turkey in 2019 due to Ankara's military actions against Kurdish groups in Syria.
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President Erdogan is demanding that Sweden extradite individuals charged with terrorism and seeks public disavowal of the PKK from Sweden and Finland, along with the lifting of the weapons ban on Turkey. Turkey officially endorsed Finland's NATO bid in April but has not yet finalised Sweden's approval.
