Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that his country will not agree to Sweden joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) as long as it allows the burning and tearing of the Holy Quran on its soil.
This came in a speech by the Turkish president, today, Wednesday, to the parliamentary bloc of the Justice and Development Party in the parliament in the capital, Ankara.
Erdogan added, "Our position is positive towards Finland's membership in NATO and negative towards Sweden's membership."
And in late January, the leader of the right-wing Danish "hard line" party, Rasmus Paludan, burned a copy of the Qur'an near the Turkish embassy in the Swedish capital, Stockholm, amid tight police protection, which prevented anyone from approaching him while he was committing this provocative act.
On June 28, 2022, Turkey, Sweden and Finland signed a tripartite memorandum of understanding regarding the accession of the latter two countries to NATO, after they pledged to respond to Ankara's demands regarding cooperation in the fight against terrorism.