Erdogan asks turkey parliament to vote on Finland bid to join NATO

Subject : International Relations

Concept :

Turkish President Erdogan said that his government will start the process of ratifying Finland’s North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) membership bid in Parliament after the country took concrete steps to keep its promises.
Background
Finland and Sweden applied to join NATO after Russia announced its special military operation in Ukraine in February last year.
The membership requires approval from all 30 member countries.
Though Finland received the backing of all members, Sweden has faced objections from Turkey on terrorism-related issues.

North Atlantic Treaty Organization:

It is an intergovernmental military alliance.
Established by Washington treaty that was signed on 4 April 1949.
Headquarters — Brussels, Belgium.
Headquarters of Allied Command Operations — Mons, Belgium.
It constitutes a system of collective defence whereby its independent member states agree to mutual defence in response to an attack by any external party.
Composition:
Since its founding, the admission of new member states has increased the alliance from the original 12 countries to 30.
The most recent member state to be added to NATO was North Macedonia on 27 March 2020.

NATO membership — Process

NATO has what it calls an “open door policy” on new members — any European country can request to join, so long as they meet certain criteria and all existing members agree.
A country does not technically “apply” to join; Article 10 of its founding treaty states that, once a nation has expressed interest, the existing member states “may, by unanimous agreement, invite any other European State in a position to further the principles of this Treaty … to accede.”
Ratification of new members could take a year, as the legislatures of all 30 current members must approve new applicants.
Both Finland and Sweden already meet many of the requirements for membership, which include
having a functioning democratic political system based on a market economy;
treating minority populations fairly;
committing to resolve conflicts peacefully;
the ability and willingness to make a military contribution to NATO operations; and
Committing to democratic civil-military relations and institutions.

What does NATO membership entail?

The reason most countries join NATO is because of Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, which stipulates that all signatories consider an attack on one an attack against all.
Article 5 has been a cornerstone of the alliance since NATO was founded in 1949 as a counterweight to the Soviet Union.
The point of the treaty, and Article 5 specifically, was to deter the Soviets from attacking liberal democracies that lacked military strength.
Article 5 guarantees that the resources of the whole alliance — including the massive US military — can be used to protect any single member nation, such as smaller countries who would be defenseless without their allies. Iceland, for example, has no standing army.