Turkey May Accept Finland to NATO without Sweden

On Sunday, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country could accept Finland into NATO without its Nordic neighbor Sweden.

"If necessary, we can give a different response concerning Finland. Sweden will be shocked when we give a different response for Finland," Erdogan said in response to a question about the candidacy of the aforementioned countries in northern Europe to join the alliance in a speech to the youth in the city of Bilecik in Turkey.

Earlier, the Turkish president stressed that Sweden should not wait for Turkey's support for its request to join NATO after the burning of the Qur'an in front of its embassy in Stockholm on January 21.

Turkey also postponed indefinitely planned talks with Sweden and Finland about the membership application, after the far-right Swedish-Danish Rasmus Paludan burned a copy of the Qur’an in a separate demonstration authorized by the police last Saturday in front of the Turkish embassy in the Swedish capital, Stockholm.

It is noteworthy that Sweden and Finland applied last year to join the alliance after they had declined to do so in the past so as not to anger Russia.