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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday for the first time that Ankara could accept Finland’s membership into the US-led North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) without its Nordic neighbor Sweded, reported news agency AFP. Erdogan’s comments came in a televised meeting with young voters after Ankara suspended NATO succession talks with the two countries.
Turkey’s decision has threatened to derail NATO’s hopes of expanding the bloc to 32 countries at a summit planned for July in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius.
The two Nordic nations had dropped decades of military non-alignment and had applied to join the defense alliance in response to Russia’s invasion in Ukraine.
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Turkey and Hungary are the only two countries that have failed to ratify the two bids by votes in Parliament. As per the report, the Hungarian legislature is expected to approve both bids in February.
But Erdogan has dug in his heels heading into a tightly contested May 14 election in which he is trying to energize his conservative and nationalist support base.
Friction between Turkey and Sweden stems as Ankara complains Sweden of refusing to extradite dozens of suspects that the former links to outlawed Kurdish militants and failed coup attempt in 2016.
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He drew a clear distinction on Sunday between the positions taken by Sweden and Finland in the past few months.
“If necessary, we can give a different response concerning Finland. Sweden will be shocked when we give a different response for Finland,” Erdogan said.
He also repeated his demand to Sweden to hand over suspects sought by Ankara. “If you absolutely want to join NATO, you will return these terrorists to us,” Erdogan said.
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