Erdogan: Turkey may accept Finland to NATO, but block Sweden

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has signalled that Ankara can accept Finland into NATO before taking any action for membership of its Nordic neighbour, Sweden.

Erdogan was speaking just days after Ankara suspended NATO accession talks with the two countries following a protest in Stockholm, in which an extreme right-wing politician burned a copy of the Koran.

“We can send Finland another message for their NATO application, and Sweden will be shocked when it sees our message. But Finland should not make the same mistake Sweden made”, Erdogan said in a televised speech broadcast Sunday.

Sweden and Finland applied last year to join NATO after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, giving up their long-standing military engagement, writes Ay Jazeera, following Clankosova. tv

Each member of the 30-nation coalition must approve their membership, and Turkey and Hungary are the only countries to have done so so far. The Hungarian Parliament is expected to approve bids in February.

Erdogan's main complaint has been with Sweden's refusal to extradite dozens of people Ankara has linked to the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and a failed coup attempt of 2016.

He is facing elections in May and has kidnapped Sweden's NATO membership while trying to empower his conservative and nationalist supporters.

On Sunday, Erdogan reiterated his request for Sweden to hand over about 120 suspects.

If you absolutely want to join NATO, you will return these terrorists to us. You will send these terrorists to us so that you can join NATO”, Erdogan said.

Swedish Prime Minister Wolf Krittersson has said his country wants to resume NATO dialogue with Turkey.

Late Saturday, the Turkish Foreign Ministry issued a travel warning to European countries regarding anti-Turkish demonstrations and what it described as Islamobi.