Erdogan claims that Turkey might allow Finland to join NATO but would reject Sweden
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Roshan Amiri
- . January 30, 2023
- . Update: January 31, 2023 1:02 am
The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has suggested that before going forward with Sweden’s NATO membership, Ankara might first allow Finland to join.
Erdogan’s comments came only days after Ankara halted talks with the two countries about joining NATO in response to an incident in Stockholm where a far-right politician set a copy of the Quran on fire during a demonstration.
“When Sweden sees our message, they’ll be astonished, and we might give Finland a different message [about their NATO application].” Erdogan said in a speech that was broadcast on television and aired on Sunday that Finland shouldn’t commit the same mistake as Sweden did.
Sweden and Finland ended their long-standing military nonalignment and submitted NATO membership bids in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2014.
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Turkey and Hungary are the only two countries that have not yet secured permission from all 30 alliance members.
Erdogan’s main grievance has been Sweden’s refusal to extradite scores of individuals that Ankara has connected to the PKK, a banned organisation, and a botched 2016 coup attempt.
He has remained steadfast on Sweden’s NATO membership in an effort to energise his conservative and nationalist followers as he prepares for an election in May. On Sunday, Erdogan renewed his demand that Sweden hand over 120 alleged suspects.
Sweden’s prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, has declared that his country wants to renew the NATO dialogue with Turkey.
Due to anti-Turkish protests and what it called “Islamophobia,” the Turkish foreign ministry late on Saturday issued a travel warning for European countries.
The warning cited an increase in anti-Turkish protests by “groups with links to terror groups” and made reference to the PKK, which began using weapons against the Turkish government in 1984.
Pro-Kurdish organisations flew the flags of the PKK and its affiliates during protests held in Sweden in response to Sweden and Finland’s promise to suspend PKK activity there in exchange for Turkey’s acceptance of them joining NATO.
