Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned Sunday that they could respond «differently» to Finland’s NATO membership request, a response that will «shock» Sweden.
«We would respond differently to Finland if necessary. Sweden will be shocked when we respond differently to Finland. Finland should not make the same mistake,» Erdogan said during an event with young people in the Turkish province of Bilecik, according to the Anatolia news agency.
Erdogan has recalled that he has handed over to Sweden a list of 120 names for extradition. «You have to extradite these terrorists in order to join NATO,» he stressed.
Sweden and Finland submitted last May and in a coordinated manner their applications for NATO membership, but Turkey as a member of the Alliance has the right to veto, so he has taken the opportunity to demand Stockholm to prosecute members of the Kurdish party-militia Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
In June Turkey and the two Scandinavian countries signed a memorandum in Madrid in which they pledged to meet Ankara’s legitimate security concerns.
BURNING OF THE KORAN Tension has escalated following the burning on Friday of a copy of the Koran in front of a mosque in Denmark by the Swedish-Danish far-right Rasmus Paludan, leader of the Stram Kurs (Hard Line) party. The previous Friday he burned another copy in Stockholm.
«Have they erased the Koran by burning a copy of the Koran in Sweden? They have only shown how ignoble they are. Denmark has done the same,» Erdogan has pointed out.
Paludan has announced that he will burn a copy of the Koran every Friday until Sweden joins NATO. So far he has only won the condemnation of most Muslim countries.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
