Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish president, has hinted that Ankara may let Finland join NATO before moving further with Sweden’s NATO membership.
Erdogan made his remarks just days after Ankara halted negotiations with the two nations to join NATO following a demonstration in Stockholm when a far-right politician set a copy of the Quran on fire.
“Sweden will be shocked when they see our message, and we may deliver Finland a different message [on their NATO application]. But Finland shouldn’t make the same error Sweden did, Erdogan said in a speech that was shown on television and aired on Sunday.
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2014, Sweden and Finland ended their long-standing military nonalignment and submitted applications to join NATO.
The only two nations that have not yet received approval from all 30 members of the alliance are Turkey and Hungary. The bids are anticipated to be approved by the Hungarian parliament in February.
Erdogan’s main grievance has been Sweden’s refusal to extradite scores of individuals that Ankara has connected to the PKK, a banned organization, and a botched 2016 coup attempt.
He has remained steadfast on Sweden’s NATO membership in an effort to energize his conservative and nationalist followers as he prepares for an election in May.
Erdogan reiterated his call for Sweden to turn over 120 accused suspects on Sunday.
Erdogan asserted, “You will return these terrorists to us if you absolutely want to join NATO.”
You’ll send these terrorists our way so you can join NATO, I suppose.”
Ulf Kristersson, the prime minister of Sweden, has stated that his nation wants to reopen the NATO conversation with Turkey.
The Turkish foreign ministry issued a travel advisory for European nations late on Saturday due to anti-Turkish protests and what it termed as Islamophobia.
The warning made reference to the PKK, which started using weapons against the Turkish government in 1984, and noted an upsurge in anti-Turkish protests by “groups with links to terror groups.”
During demonstrations in Sweden held in response to Sweden and Finland’s pledge to halt PKK activities there in exchange for Turkey’s approval for them to join NATO, pro-Kurdish organisations flew the flags of the PKK and its affiliates.
Erdogan claimed that Turkey has supplied a list of 120 people that it wants Sweden to extradite as part of the memorandum.
