Turkish parliamentary commission approves Finland’s NATO bid

The Turkish parliament's foreign affairs commission approved a bill ratifying Finland's bid to join NATO, state broadcaster TRT Haber reported on Thursday, effectively taking Helsinki another step toward membership of the trans-Atlantic pact.

Parliament's general assembly still needs to approve the bill and is expected to do so before it closes in mid-April, ahead of parliamentary and presidential elections on May 14.

President Tayyip Erdogan said last week during a visit by his Finnish counterpart Sauli Niinisto to Turkey that parliament would ratify Helsinki's accession to NATO.

But Erdogan held off approving the NATO membership bid of Sweden, which Ankara says has not gone far enough in cracking down on people Turkey considers terrorists. The three countries signed a pact on the issue last year.

Finland and Sweden applied to join NATO after Russia...