The General Assembly of Parliament is expected to debate Sweden's long-delayed NATO membership bid on Tuesday, sources said Monday.
A vote could take place as early as Tuesday, private network CNN Turk said while Agence France-Presse (AFP) quoted a source as saying it might be held on Thursday.
The exact timing of the vote remains unclear, with Sweden at the end of a list of 42 agenda items, according to the parliament website.
Parliament's Committee on Foreign Affairs approved the protocol on Sweden's NATO accession bid in December, bringing an end to a 19-month standoff that strained ties between Ankara and its Western allies.
The protocol must now be voted by the full 600-seat General Assembly, where President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s ruling People’s Alliance holds the majority. If passed by Parliament, the president will then need to sign it into law.
The Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), partner to Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AK Party), announced Tuesday it would back the legislation at the parliamentary voting.
Türkiye’s ratification would leave Hungary as the last holdout in an accession process that Sweden and its neighbor Finland began in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine nearly two years ago.
Finland became the 31st member of the U.S.-led defense alliance last April.
Its membership roughly doubled the length of NATO's border with Russia and substantially strengthened the defenses of three tiny Baltic nations that joined the bloc following the Soviet Union's collapse.
Sweden and Finland pursued a policy of military non-alignment during the Cold War era confrontation between Moscow and Washington.
But Russia's invasion of its western neighbor set off Europe's biggest and most brutal land battle since World War II, upturning geopolitical calculations.
Also on Tuesday, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán announced he has sent a letter inviting his Swedish counterpart, Ulf Kristersson, to discuss Sweden's NATO membership bid.
"Today I sent an invitation letter to Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson for a visit to Hungary to negotiate on Sweden’s NATO accession," Orbán wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
In Hungary's parliament, the vote is now only a formality as the relevant committees have already gave the green light.
But the final vote has been repeatedly postponed at Orban's instigation, out of anger at criticism from Stockholm about the state of the rule of law in Hungary.
Orban has said that Hungary and Türkiye are not working together to stall Sweden's application, but that each government had its own concerns.
Ankara’s ire
Erdoğan's resistance to Sweden's NATO accession reflected his more nuanced stance toward Moscow where he opted to maintain close ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin, as well as Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy, which has proved vital.
Turkish media reported that Putin could make his first wartime visit to Türkiye next month.
Ankara has been angered mainly by the Nordic country’s tolerance of members and sympathizers of the PKK. This terrorist group has led a bloody campaign against the Turkish state since the 1980s, killing over 40,000 civilians, as well as the Gülenist Terrorist Group (FETÖ), which orchestrated a bloody coup attempt in 2016.
Sweden tightened its counterterrorism legislation in response to Turkish pressure. Erdoğan lifted his objections to Sweden’s application at a NATO summit in July while pushing for concessions from its U.S. ally.
Fighter jets
Erdoğan has made Türkiye’s ratification of Sweden's application conditional on the U.S. Congress "simultaneously" approving Ankara’s request for 40 F-16 fighter jets and spare parts.
Even though the U.S. administration has promised to move forward with the sale, its approval has met resistance from Congress.
Erdoğan last month discussed his demands by telephone with U.S. President Joe Biden while Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken that Türkiye now expects the U.S. administration and Congress to "act in line with the spirit of alliance and to fulfill the commitments made" about the F-16s.
U.S. officials argued that Türkiye's request could win the required congressional approval if Sweden's NATO accession goes through – a position reaffirmed by Blinken during a visit to Istanbul this month.
"We have not parsed words about how ready we are for Sweden to formally join the alliance," deputy State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel said after news emerged that Türkiye was finally ready to ratify the Swedish candidacy.
"We have long felt that (Sweden) has met its commitment and we look forward to this process moving forward."
Some analysts additionally linked Türkiye's continued delays to Erdoğan's anger at Washington for its support of how Israel is pursuing its attacks on the Gaza Strip.
Erdoğan has turned into one of the Muslim world's harshest critics of the scale of death and destruction unleashed by Israel, which has killed over 25,000 people, mostly Palestinian women and children, in response to Hamas' unprecedented Oct. 7 attack on Israel.