Turkey May Make Decision on Finnish NATO Membership That Will 'Shock' Sweden: Erdogan

Ankara has held up Finland and Sweden's accession into the Western military alliance for months, calling on the Nordic nations to drop any association with Kurdish militants it classifies as 'terrorists', and make other concessions. This week, controversy generated by the burning of Quarans in Stockholm further strained Turkish-Swedish ties.

Turkey may take a decision on Finland's NATO membership that will "shock" Sweden, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has announced.

"Sweden's prime minister does not speak Ottoman Turkish or Turkish. We told him, if you always tell us 'NATO', you will return these terrorists to us. If you don't extradite these terrorists to us, we're sorry. We gave you a list of 120 names," Erdogan said, speaking at a youth forum in Bilecik, western Turkey on Sunday.

"They couldn't recognize Turkey. The Turkey of 20, 30, 40 years ago is not the Turkey of today," the Turkish president added.

"Look, let me tell you something here tonight: We can give a different response to Finland [on NATO membership] if necessary, and Sweden will be shocked when we give this different response for Finland," Erdogan said.

Sweden and Finland applied for NATO membership in May 2022, doing away with many decades (and in Sweden's case centuries) of neutrality. Their incorporation into the Western bloc has been held up by Turkey and Hungary, with Budapest reportedly planning to ratify the Nordics' NATO bids sometime in the coming weeks. Ankara has decided to hold off on a decision until after presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for June 18.

Tensions between Stockholm and Ankara on the NATO issue began rising in December after a Swedish court blocked the extradition of an exiled Turkish journalist sought in connection with the 2016 Turkish coup attempt against Erdogan. Swedish-Turkish relations soured further this month amid a series of actions by Swedish political forces which many Turks found provocative - including the hanging of an effigy of Erdogan outside Stockholm's City Hall, a satirical drawing competition mocking the Turkish president, statements by senior Swedish officials painting Erdogan an "Islamist dictator," and the burning of Qurans in front of the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm by a hard right party in protest of Ankara holding up Sweden's NATO bid.

Turkish officials have warned repeatedly that ties with Sweden will take a turn for the worse if the Nordic nation fails to take action against the Kurdistan Workers' Party, while Turkey's Defense Minister has said that neither Sweden or Finland have met the requirements to join NATO. Ankara canceled a planned visit to Turkey by Swedish Defense Minister Pal Jonson last week and summoned Sweden's ambassador over the Quran burning issue.

Last Monday, Erdogan warned that Stockholm should not expect Ankara's support for NATO membership if it continues to tolerate this series of anti-Turkish and anti-Islam behavior. Talks on the issue were put on hold on at Ankara's request, with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu calling them "pointless" under the present circumstances.