Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hinted today, Sunday, that Turkey might agree to Finland’s accession to NATOwithout making a similar initiative towards Sweden.
Erdogan said, in response to a question about the aforementioned two countries in northern Europe’s candidacy to join the alliance in a speech to the youth in the city of Bilecik, “When necessary, we may send a different message with regard to Finland. Sweden will be shocked when we send a different message with regard to Finland.”
Finland and Sweden.. Why is the key to NATO membership in Erdogan’s hands?
The incident of burning the Qur’an
Earlier, the Turkish president stressed that Sweden should not wait for Turkey’s support for its request to join NATO after the burning of the Qur’an in front of its embassy in Stockholm on January 21.
Turkey also postponed indefinitely planned talks with Sweden and Finland about the membership application, after the far-right Swedish-Danish Rasmus Paludan burned a copy of the Qur’an in a separate demonstration authorized by the police last Saturday in front of the Turkish embassy in the Swedish capital, Stockholm.
According to press reports, quoting diplomatic sources, that the talks were scheduled to take place in early February, according to AFP.
It is noteworthy that Sweden and Finland had applied last year to join the alliance after they had declined to do so in the past for not angering Russia.
But they changed their position after the Russian military operation in Ukraine, which in turn is seeking to join the alliance, to no avail.
According to the rules of the alliance, all members must agree to join the new members.
While Turkey and Hungary have not yet given the green light to Sweden and Finland.
