Turkey’s parliament has passed a bill approving Finland’s entry into the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) in a huge blow to Vladimir Putin. The decision, made on Thursday (March 30), will massively enlarge the alliance’s border with Russia.

The legislature in Ankara unanimously voted in favour of Finland’s entry.

Turkey was the final member of NATO required to allow Finland to join the bloc after Hungary approved the move on Monday.

However, Sweden’s current bid to join up is still being blocked by Turkey and Hungary.

Turkey has for a long time held that Sweden has been a supporter of the PKK — the Kurdistan Workers’ Party — which it considers a terrorist organisation.

Finland’s accession to NATO is predicted to put the organisation in much better stead to prevent more Russian aggression.

As well as providing the bloc with access to the country’s advanced military, it also provides the bloc with access to Finnish airspace, ports and sea lanes.

The country shares an 830-mile border with Russia.

Yesterday, the Russian Embassy in Sweden threatened the new NATO state and Sweden with military retaliation if it joins NATO.

It stated on its official Facebook Page: “If anyone still believes that this will somehow improve Europe’s security, you can be sure that the new members of the hostile bloc will become a legitimate target for Russia’s retaliatory measures, including military ones.”

Sweden has made efforts to convince Erdogan to accept it into NATO. It has passed anti-terrorism legislation which targets the PKK.

The new legislation criminalises a wide range of actions connected to groups designated as terrorist organisations. These include handling equipment and organising rallies.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said Sweden had completed the obligations Erdogan wanted but the leader has remained stubborn on the issue.

MORE TO FOLLOW…

Source: Read Full Article