Turkish president Erdogan says he may block Sweden's Nato membership bid days after Koran was burnt publicly in Sweden

 

 President Recep Erdogan of Turkey has said he would not support Sweden's bid to join Transatlantic military alliance, NATO until it extradites dozens of "terrorists" to Turkey.

In response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Sweden and Finland applied to join Nato last year, ending decades of military non-alignment.

 

Their application must be unanimously approved by all current Nato members, but Turkey and Hungary has failed to ratify their bids.

 

According to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Ankara may agree to Finland joining Nato, but not Sweden.

In his speech, Erdogan suggested Turkey might now "give a different response concerning Finland," adding that "Sweden will be shocked".

"We gave Sweden a list of 120 persons and told them to extradite those terrorists in their country," said Mr Erdogan. "If you don't extradite them, then sorry about that."

He criticised Sweden's refusal to extradite dozens of people allegedly tied to Kurdish militant groups and other critics of his government.

"If you absolutely want to join Nato, you will return these terrorists to us," said Erdogan.

 

His comments come days after Turkey suspended talks to accept the two Nordic nations as members.

The move was prompted by a series of controversial protests in Stockholm, including one during which a copy of the Koran was burned.

Turkey also criticised Sweden over another protest in Stockholm, including one by a Kurdish support group which hung an effigy of Mr Erdogan from a lamp-post.

 

 

Swedish officials have condemned the protests, but defended the country's free speech laws.

 

Turkey called on Sweden to distance itself from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which is regarded as a terrorist group by Turkey, the US and the EU.

 

Both Sweden and Finland have also lifted bans on the sale of military equipment to Turkey, introduced after Ankara's military intervention in Syria in 2019.