By moving to ratify Sweden’s NATO accession protocol, Turkey is missing a historic chance to act in the interests of humanity as a whole rather than those a separate bloc of nations, Russian Federation Council (upper house of parliament, or "senate") Vice Speaker Konstantin Kosachev said, TASS reports.
"It’s only regrettable that Turkey - alas! - is about to make a final decision on Sweden’s NATO membership. A historic chance for Turkey to act in the interests of all of humanity, rather than [the narrow interests of] a separate bloc, will also be lost," the senator wrote on Telegram, commenting on the vote by Turkey’s unicameral parliament, the Grand National Assembly, in favor of formally ratifying the protocol on Sweden’s accession to the North Atlantic Alliance.
"For Turkey, approving Sweden’s accession to the bloc was not a foreign policy question ('What’s in it for NATO?') but a domestic policy question ('What’s in it for Turkey?'). It seems they have achieved what they wanted," Kosachev added.
According to him, the consensus necessary for bringing yet another country into NATO exists neither in Sweden itself nor among the North Atlantic Alliance, nor within the international community at large. He cited foreign expert estimates that NATO and the US have been behind some 80% of the over 250 armed conflicts that have broken out across the world since the end of World War II.
On January 23, Turkish lawmakers passed a bill ratifying the formal protocol approving Sweden’s accession to NATO. Now, Hungary remains the only member of the alliance whose parliament has not yet ratified Stockholm’s membership application. Finland and Sweden applied for NATO membership simultaneously on May 18, 2022, saying that the move had been prompted by developments in Ukraine. Finland formally became a NATO member on April 4, 2023.
