ANKARA
\nT\u00fcrkiye rules out greenlighting Sweden joining NATO as long as it permits attacks on Islam\u2019s holy book the Quran, the country\u2019s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said.
\n\u201cWe will not say yes to (Sweden\u2019s) entry into NATO as long as you allow our holy book, the Quran, to be burned, torn apart, and to be done with (the approval of) your security personnel,\u201d Erdogan said, referring to the recent burning of a Quran in Stockholm.
\n\u201cWe closely follow developments regarding NATO\u2019s enlargement process. Our view on Finland is positive, but not on Sweden,\u201d he said, signalling a willingness to support Finland\u2019s NATO bid separately from Sweden\u2019s.
\nHis remarks came after Danish-Swedish paedophile Rasmus Paludan last week burned copies of the Quran on two separate occasions, first outside the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm and then later in front of a mosque in Denmark.
\nPaludan also said he would burn the Muslim holy book every Friday until Sweden is admitted to the NATO alliance.
\nSweden and Finland formally applied to join NATO last May, a decision spurred by Russia\u2019s military action against Ukraine, which started on February 24, 2022.
\nBut T\u00fcrkiye \u2013 a NATO member for more than 70 years \u2013 voiced objections, accusing the two countries of tolerating and even supporting terrorist groups. Under a memorandum signed last June between T\u00fcrkiye, Sweden, and Finland, the two Nordic countries, pledged to take steps against terrorists in order to gain membership in the NATO alliance.
\nIn the agreement, Sweden and Finland agreed not to provide support to terrorist groups such as the PKK and its offshoots, and the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO), and to extradite terror suspects to T\u00fcrkiye, among other steps.
\nUnanimous agreement from all NATO members, including T\u00fcrkiye, is needed for any new members to be admitted to the alliance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ANKARA T\u00fcrkiye rules out greenlighting Sweden joining NATO as long as it permits attacks on Islam\u2019s holy book the Quran, the country\u2019s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said. \u201cWe will not say yes to (Sweden\u2019s) entry into NATO as long as you allow our holy book, the Quran, to be burned, torn apart, and to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":282421,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[2442],"class_list":{"0":"post-311177","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-tayyip-erdogan"},"yoast_head":"\n