The Koran burning scandal at the Turkish embassy in Sweden is gaining momentum. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan promised to make a shocking decision in Stockholm.
The Turkish leader said this during a meeting with young people. It should be noted that Recep Erdogan did not specify what kind of decision he was talking about.
What Erdogan said
Turkey and Hungary are the only NATO members , which have not yet ratified the protocols on the accession of Finland and Sweden to the Alliance. Without this, NATO expansion is impossible. Therefore, Recep Erdogan promises a shocking solution to Stockholm.
Sweden will be shocked when this happens,” Erdogan said.
At the same time, with regard to Finland, the Turkish President said that, if necessary, Ankara could send another message about Finland if it does not repeat the same mistakes, like Sweden with the Koran burning incidents. That is, probably, Turkey is ready to ratify the treaty on Finland's accession to NATO separately from Sweden.
Erdogan did not say what the decision would be, but noted that he had handed over a list of 120 people to Sweden. Probably, the point is that Ankara wants to extradite members of the Kursk organizations.
Can Finland join NATO separately from Sweden
Sweden and Finland, after the start of a full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, began a joint process of joining NATO. However, after Rasmus Paludan burned the Koran at a protest action near the Turkish embassy, the process of Sweden's entry into the Alliance was suspended. Therefore, Finland is thinking about continuing the accession procedure separately.
Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto, in a commentary to Bloomberg, stressed that Helsinki is still convinced that the accession of the two countries should take place simultaneously.
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It is still unclear how much Finland will change its approach. The position remains regarding the simultaneous entry of the two countries into NATO, taking into account security concerns, said Haavisto.
Helsinki believes in the common path of Finland and Sweden in joining NATO, but the option of separate integration is also being considered.
