Türkiye may respond ‘differently’ to Finland’s NATO bid, Erdoğan says

Türkiye may respond "differently" to Finland's NATO bid that would "shock" Sweden, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Jan. 29.

"We may respond differently to Finland if necessary. Sweden would be shocked when we respond differently to Finland. But Finland should not make the same mistake," Erdoğan said at a meeting in northwestern Bilecik province.

Ankara sent a list of 120 "terrorists" to Sweden for extradition, Erdoğan said adding that the Nordic country must extradite these people to Türkiye in order to join NATO.

Finland and Sweden winning formal support for their plans at a historic NATO summit in June. Their bids were then swiftly ratified by 28 of NATO's 30 member states, highlighting the issues' urgency in the face of Russia's aggression.

NATO-member Türkiye hasn't ratified but endorsed their accession, which requires unanimous approval from all present alliance members.

Sweden and Finland have taken some steps to address Türkiye's concerns but Ankara says more concrete actions are needed for the Turkish Parliament's ratification of their accession to the alliance.

Elaborating on the incidents of burning the Quran by far-right politicians in northern European countries, Erdoğan said, "Did they wipe out Islam by burning our Quran? They just showed how ignoble they are. Denmark did the same."

Elaborating on Türkiye's ties with Russia, the president said there is mutual respect in ties between Ankara and Moscow.

"Although we can't get the result that we wanted regarding the developments in northern Syria right now, we say, 'Come, let's have some tripartite meetings now.' What are these? Let's come together as a trio, Russia, Türkiye, and Syria. We can even add Iran to this. Let Iran also come," he...