ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey looks positively on Finland’s application for NATO membership, but does not support Sweden’s bid, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday.
“Our position on Finland is positive, but it is not positive on Sweden,” Erdogan said of their NATO applications in a speech to his AK Party deputies in parliament.
Sweden and Finland applied last year to join the trans-Atlantic defense pact after Russia, Ukraine war, but faced unexpected objections from Turkey and have since sought to win its support.
Ankara wants Helsinki and Stockholm in particular to take a tougher line against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is considered a terror group by Turkey and the European Union, and another group it blames for a 2016 coup attempt.
The three nations reached an agreement on a way forward in Madrid last June, but Ankara suspended talks last month as tensions rose following protests in Stockholm in which a far-right Danish politician burned a copy of the Muslim holy book, the Qura’an.
“Sweden should not bother to try at this point. We will not say ‘yes’ to their NATO application as long as they allow burning of the Qura’an,” Erdogan said.
Sweden’s Foreign Minister said there could be no compromise over freedom of speech, but that Sweden would continue to implement the Madrid agreement.
At the weekend, Erdogan signalled that Ankara could agree to Finland joining NATO ahead of Sweden. But Finland’s Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto said on Monday his country was sticking to its plan to apply jointly with Sweden.
Of NATO’s 30 members, only Turkey and Hungary are yet to ratify the Nordic countries’ memberships.