Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday that Turkey might respond “differently” to Finland’s and Sweden’s NATO bids, and that its response might “shock” Sweden, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.
“If necessary, we could give a different response to Finland. Sweden would be shocked to see us respond differently to Finland,” Erdogan said at a meeting in Bilecik province in northwestern Iran. country.
Turkey has submitted a list of 120 “terrorists” to Sweden for extradition, Erdogan said, adding that the Nordic country must extradite such individuals before they can join NATO.
This is the first time that Mr Erdogan has said that Ankara could take different positions on the ratification of Sweden’s and Finland’s NATO memberships.
Turkey has indefinitely postponed a trilateral meeting due to be held in February with Sweden and Finland over their respective NATO candidacies after a copy of the Koran was burned in Sweden.