The vote in the Turkish parliament on Sweden’s NATO membership, which was approved by a parliamentary committee on December 26, will “probably” not take place until early 2024 with MPs returning on January 15. according to Turkish parliamentary sources.

The Turkish parliament is located on vacation since last night. The Committee on Foreign Affairs approved yesterday, Tuesday, the protocol of Sweden’s accession to the Atlantic Alliance, but the vote in the plenary session of the Turkish parliament is pending.

Turkey is the latest member of the Atlantic Alliance along with Hungary to block Sweden’s accession by making demands and pretexts to justify its stance.

Stockholm submitted its candidacy to NATO shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, at the same time as Finland, which was accepted last April.

President Tayyip Erdogan has the ability to call an emergency parliamentary session before the resumption of the work of the Turkish Parliament. But Turkey’s president has openly linked Ankara’s green light to the issue of selling US fighter jets F-16, which has been blocked by Congress.

According to a diplomatic source in Ankara, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan spoke yesterday with his American counterpart Anthony Blinken “following the latter’s request”.

According to the same source, Hakan Fidan insisted on the issue of F-16s and reminded that Ankara “expects the US government and the US Congress to act in the spirit of the alliance and to respect the commitments”.