On Thursday, Turkey ratifies Finland's accession to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), becoming the last member state of the Western defense alliance to agree to this step.

The vote will take place during a parliamentary session starting at 12:00 (11:00 GMT), according to the agenda seen by AFP.

Parliament's approval is almost certain after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan gave the go-ahead for Finland to join the alliance earlier this month, a decision welcomed by NATO.

"We have decided to launch the process of Finland's accession to NATO in our parliament," Erdogan said after a meeting in Ankara with Finnish President Sauli Niinisto at the time.

The vote is supposed to take place without concern after it was approved by the Turkish Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee last week.
Turkey is the last country to agree to Finland's membership, after the Hungarian Parliament approved it on Monday.

Membership of Finland and Sweden, which was jointly introduced last year after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, requires unanimous approval by NATO member states.

The Finnish president had expressed his "hope" for the ratification of his country's membership in NATO before the Turkish presidential and legislative elections scheduled for May 14, as the Turkish parliament suspended its work about a month before this poll.

Since May 2022, Turkey has been refusing to ratify the applications for candidacy of Finland and Sweden for NATO membership.

Turkey blames Sweden in particular for harboring Kurdish activists that it considers "terrorists", especially supporters of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), although Erdogan acknowledged the "concrete measures" taken by Helsinki in recent months.

Finland, which was forced by Moscow to remain neutral after its war with the Soviet Union during World War II, shares the longest European border with Russia at a length of 1,340 km, after Ukraine.

The Kremlin, which at first seemed to downplay the candidacy of Finland and Sweden, has hardened its rhetoric in recent weeks.

And Sweden announced on Wednesday that it would summon the Russian ambassador in Stockholm after his statements in which he threatened the Scandinavian country and Finland that they would become once they joined NATO "legitimate targets" for operations carried out by Moscow, including "military".

Putin announced Saturday that he was going to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, which is headed by Alexander Lukashenko, the authoritarian leader who is one of Putin's closest allies, and located at the gates of the European Union.

"The most important thing is that Finland and Sweden become members of NATO quickly, not that they join at the exact same time," said NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.

The situation is more sensitive for Sweden, which still faces objections from Ankara.

Erdogan said in the middle of last month, "Sweden has not taken any positive action regarding the list of terrorists," referring to more than 120 extradition requests submitted by Ankara.

The burning of the Koran by an extremist in the Swedish capital in January led to the suspension of talks between Ankara, Helsinki and Stockholm.

The Turkish president had hinted that Turkey was ready to ratify Finland's membership separately, while he hoped the two countries would join the alliance at the same time.

Despite this, Stockholm still hopes to complete its accession to the alliance before the next NATO summit scheduled for July in Vilnius, Lithuania.