Turkey Approves Sweden’s Accession To NATO After 20 Month Delay

After nearly two years of delays, Turkey’s parliament finally agreed to ratify Sweden’s NATO membership bid on Tuesday, clearing the biggest remaining hurdle to expanding the Western military alliance following the Ukraine war. Turkey’s general assembly, where President Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling alliance holds a majority, voted 287-55 to approve the application that Sweden first made in 2022 to boost its security in response to “fear” that Russia would invade it, when in reality Russia invaded Ukraine in response to the encroaching NATO expansion that is now taking place.