Erdogan said Turkey can accept Finland into NATO but not Sweden

President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned this Sunday that they might respond “differently” to Finland’s NATO membership request.A response that “shocked” Sweden.

“We will respond differently to Finland if necessary. Sweden will be shocked when we respond differently to Finland. Finland should not make the same mistake,” Erdogan said during an event with young people in the Turkish province of Bilecik, the news agency reported. Anatolian.

Erdogan recalled giving Sweden a list of 120 names. “YouThese terrorists should be deported to join NATO”, he emphasized.

Turkey and Hungary are the only members of the 30-nation Western Defense Alliance that do not recognize Sweden and Finland’s membership concessions.

The Hungarian parliament is expected to approve both offers in February.

But Erdogan is holding his own ahead of a heated May 14 presidential election in which he is trying to energize his conservative and nationalist support base.

Sweden and Finland submitted applications for NATO membership in a coordinated manner last May, but Turkey, as a member of the alliance, has veto rights, which is why Stockholm has taken the opportunity to demand that the party members persecute Kurdish militias. Kurdistan Workers Party (P.K.K)

Erdogan’s main complaint is that Sweden has refused to hand over dozens of suspects to Ankara with links to outlawed Kurdish militias and the failed 2016 coup attempt.

In June, Turkey and the two Scandinavian countries signed a memorandum in Madrid in which they undertook to satisfy Ankara’s legitimate security concerns.

On January 8, the Prime Minister of Sweden, Ulf KristerssonI announced that The Turkish government has been making repeated demands on its country to join NATO, which Sweden cannot accept and is unwilling to comply with.

“They want things we can’t give and don’t want to give, and now the decision falls on the Turks.” The Prime Minister made the announcement during the People and Security Conference in Stockholm and the newspaper reported aftonbladet.

Tensions worsened after a copy of the Koran was burned in front of a mosque in Denmark on Friday at the hands of the Swedish-Danish far-right. With Rasmus PaludParty leader Strom Kurz (Hard Line). The previous Friday he burned another copy in Stockholm.

“Did they destroy the Quran by burning a copy of the Quran in Sweden? Just showed how despicable they are. Denmark did the same,” Erdogan said.

Balut announced that he would burn a copy of the Koran every Friday until Sweden joined NATO. So far it has only met with condemnation from majority Muslim countries.

With information from Europa Press

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