Turkiye signals Sweden faces 'shock' on NATO bid

ISTANBUL/ANKARA — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has suggested that his country might approve Finland's application for NATO membership before taking any action on Sweden's, while Ankara issued a travel warning for European countries due to anti-Turkish demonstrations and what it described as Islamophobia.

The travel warning published on Saturday followed demonstrations on the previous weekend outside the Turkish Embassy in Sweden, where an activist burned the Quran and pro-Kurdish groups protested against Turkiye. The events stiffened the Turkish refusal so far to ratify Sweden's NATO bid.

Sweden and Finland applied jointly to become members of the military alliance, dropping their longstanding military nonalignment following the start of Russia's special military operation in Ukraine. In a video of an event released on Sunday, Erdogan indicated that Turkiye might sign off on only Finland.

"If needed, we could give a different message about Finland. Sweden will be shocked when we give the different message about Finland," Erdogan was filmed telling a group of young people in Bilecik Province.

Ankara has accused Stockholm of being too lenient toward groups it deems as terror organizations or existential threats, including Kurdish groups. NATO requires the unanimous approval of its existing members to add new ones, but Erdogan's government has said it would only agree to admit Sweden if the country met its conditions.

In its travel warning to citizens, the Turkish foreign ministry cited an increase in anti-Turkiye protests by "groups with links to terror groups", a reference to the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, which has waged a decadeslong insurgency against Turkiye. Along with Turkiye, the European Union and the United States also designate the PKK as a terror group.

Pro-Kurdish groups have waved the flags of the PKK and its affiliates during protests in Sweden organized as a response to Sweden and Finland's promise to prevent the PKK's activities in their countries in order to gain Turkiye's approval for their NATO memberships.

Erdogan said he told the Swedish prime minister: "You will extradite these terrorists if you really want to enter NATO. If you don't extradite these terrorists, then sorry."

He said Turkiye had provided a list of 120 people it wants extradited from Sweden, a demand that was part of a memorandum signed in June that averted Turkiye's veto of the Nordic nations' joint application.

Agencies - Xinhua