Turkey will not say yes to Sweden’s NATO bid as long as they allow the burning of the Koran: President Erdogan
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday that Ankara will not accept Sweden’s application for NATO membership “as long as they allow the burning of the Koran,” Reuters news agency reported. “Sweden should not bother trying at this point. We will not say ‘yes’ to their NATO application as long as they allow the burning of the Koran,” Erdogan said.
Erdogan said Turkey views Finland’s application for NATO membership positively but does not support Sweden’s bid.
“Our position on Finland is positive, but it is not positive towards Sweden,” Erdogan said of their NATO applications in a speech to his AK Party deputies in parliament.
After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year, Finland and Sweden had applied to join the transatlantic defense alliance but were met with unexpected objections from Turkey and have since been trying to win its support.
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Ankara’s backlash against Stockholm’s Nato bid comes after the Nordic country authorized protests involving the burning of the Muslim holy Koran by a far-right politician and the issue of extradition of people affiliated with anti-Turkey groups.
Swedish police allowed a protest in which a far-right politician burned a copy of the Koran outside the Turkish embassy in Stockholm in January.
Sweden and Finland submitted their formal requests to join NATO in May 2022, which was initially opposed by Turkey, an alliance member, citing their support for anti-Ankara Kurdish organizations and political dissidents.
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A month later, Turkey, Sweden and Finland reached a memorandum of understanding (MoU) ahead of the NATO summit in Madrid.
Under the memorandum of understanding, Ankara agreed to lift its veto on NATO’s bid by Finland and Sweden, which in return pledged to support Ankara’s fight against terrorism and deal with its “pending deportation or extradition requests of terror suspects promptly and thoroughly”.
The Turkish parliament has not yet ratified the Nordic countries’ NATO bid, citing that they have not yet met Ankara’s wishes.