Turkey: The Turkish President Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdogan has stated that Ankara could accept Finland into NATO but not Sweden.

The Turkish President criticised Sweden’s refusal to extradite dozens of people allegedly tied to Kurdish militant groups and other critics of his government.

“We may deliver Finland a different message on their NATO application, and Sweden would be shocked when they see our message. But Finland should not make the same mistake Sweden did,” Mr. Erdogan stated in a speech.

“If you absolutely want to join NATO, you will return these terrorists to us,” the President remarked.

In his speech, Mr. Erdogan suggested Turkey might now “give a different response concerning Finland,” adding that “Sweden will be shocked.”

“We gave Sweden a list of 120 people and told them to extradite those terrorists in their country. If you don’t extradite them, then sorry about that,” the President further added.

Sweden and Finland applied to join NATO in 2022 after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, dropping their longstanding military nonalignment.

Every member of the 30-nation alliance needs to approve their membership, and Turkey and Hungary are the only countries yet to have done so. The Hungarian parliament is expected to approve the bids in February 2023.

Mr. Erdogan’s main complaint against Sweden was the country’s refusal to extradite dozens of people that Ankara has linked to the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and a failed 2016 coup attempt.

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