President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Sunday signaled that Ankara may agree to admit Finland in NATO ahead of Sweden as tensions with the latter reached a climax in the past few weeks over anti-Türkiye and anti-Islam attacks on the country’s soil.

"We may deliver Finland a different message (on their NATO application) and Sweden would be shocked when they see our message. But Finland should not make the same mistake Sweden did," Erdoğan said in a televised speech aired on Sunday.

He also repeated his demand for Sweden to hand over suspects sought by Ankara. "If you absolutely want to join NATO, you will return these terrorists to us," Erdoğan said. "We gave Sweden a list of 120 persons and told them to extradite those terrorists in their country. If you don't extradite them, then sorry about that," Erdoğan added.

Sweden has approved a constitutional amendment that enables it to enact tougher anti-terror laws demanded by Ankara. However, Türkiye suspended NATO talks with Sweden and Finland last week after a protest in Stockholm in which a far-right politician burned a copy of the Quran.

Ankara has also been outraged by a Swedish prosecutor's decision not to press charges against PKK terrorist sympathizers that hung an effigy of Erdoğan by its ankles outside Stockholm City Court.

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said his country wanted to restore NATO dialogue with Türkiye, but Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said on Thursday it was meaningless to restart talks.

Çavuşoğlu also said there was "no offer to evaluate Sweden's and Finland's NATO membership separately."

On the burning of a copy of the Quran in Sweden, Erdoğan said, "Did they wipe out Islam by burning our Quran? ... They just showed how ignoble they are. Denmark did the same."

On Friday, Swedish-Danish politician Rasmus Paludan, the leader of the far-right Stram Kurs (Hard Line) Party, burned a copy of the Quran in front of a mosque in Denmark, days after a similar act in Stockholm.

The desecration of the Quran prompted strong protests in the Muslim world, with Türkiye calling Paludan an "Islam-hating charlatan" and strongly condemned the permission given by authorities for the provocative act which it said, "clearly constitutes a hate crime."

Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu also touched upon the issue on Monday during a joint press conference with his Portuguese counterpart João Cravinho in the capital Ankara.

"It would be a fair attitude to separate between the problematic country and the less problematic country. If such a decision is taken, we consider evaluating them separately. First of all, NATO and these countries have to decide," he said.

"Our aim is not to differentiate between the two countries, this is a stance resulting from the objective evaluation of the relieving of our concerns," Çavuşoğlu said, referring to Sweden not taking the necessary steps expected by Türkiye in terms of fighting terrorism and anti-Türkiye propaganda.

He said that he discussed the issue following Erdoğan's comments on Sunday with his Finnish counterpart.

The standoff between Ankara and Stockholm prompted Finnish officials to hint for the first time last week that they might be forced to seek NATO membership without Sweden.

The two nations had sought to join the bloc together from the start.

"We have to assess the situation, whether something has happened that in the longer term would prevent Sweden from going ahead," Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto said last Tuesday. But Haavisto stressed that a joint accession remains the "first option."

Sweden and Finland applied last year to join NATO following Russia's invasion of Ukraine and need all member countries' approval to join. Türkiye and Hungary are yet to ratify the Nordic countries' membership.

Ankara has previously said Sweden in particular must first take a clearer stance against terrorists. Türkiye has frequently voiced that it does not oppose NATO enlargement, but rather criticizes Stockholm for not taking action against elements that are posing a security threat to Ankara.

Last June, Türkiye and the two Nordic countries signed a memorandum to address Ankara’s legitimate security concerns, paving the way for their eventual membership in the alliance. But recent provocative demonstrations by terrorist supporters and Islamophobic figures in Stockholm have led Turkish leaders to question Sweden’s commitment to take the steps necessary to gain NATO membership.

Ankara has long criticized Stockholm for housing members of various terrorist organizations, particularly members of the PKK and, in recent years, the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) – the organization behind the 2016 defeated coup attempt in Türkiye.

Ahead of a historic NATO summit, the three countries signed a trilateral deal in June that prevented a Turkish veto. In the memorandum, the Nordic countries said they would address Türkiye’s extradition requests for terrorists. In addition, the joint directive states that Finland and Sweden "will not provide support to ... the organization described as FETÖ" and terrorist groups.

PKK funding

Sweden has a bigger PKK presence than Finland and a more serious dispute with Ankara. In a confession-like statement, Sweden's chief NATO negotiator said his country has a larger share of PKK financing compared to Finland. Speaking to the state-owned Sveriges Radio, Oscar Stenstrom was quoted as saying by Anadolu Agency (AA) that "Unlike Finland, we have a larger share of funding for the PKK from Sweden."

Stenstrom further said he acknowledges that the PKK is involved with the drug market, which is considered to be one of the main funding channels of the terrorist organization.

Sweden is currently experiencing the most violent gang-related violence with over 300 shootings and bombings recorded in 2022, leaving 63 people dead. Stenstrom said there is a direct correlation between gang violence and the PKK.

"These people are often multitaskers in their field. Terrorist financing and serious crime are linked, yes. It is far from explaining everything, but extortion, financing weapons and drugs exist in this field," he said.

Türkiye, Russia, Syria talks

Turning to relations with Russia, Erdoğan said there is mutual respect in Türkiye's relations with Russia.

"Although we can't get the result we want in the developments in northern Syria right now, we say, 'Come, let's have some tripartite meetings.' What are these? Let's come together as Russia, Türkiye and Syria trio. We can even add Iran to this. Let Iran also come. Let's have talks in this way and there will be peace in the region," Erdoğan said.

Previously, Erdoğan said the leaders of Türkiye, Russia and Syria could also meet to discuss peace and stability in Syria.

Although no date or location has yet been announced, the foreign ministers of the trio are expected to hold a meeting, which would mark another high level of talks since the Syrian civil war began in early 2011.

On Dec. 28, the Turkish, Russian and Syrian defense ministers met in Moscow to discuss counterterrorism efforts in Syria, and they agreed to continue tripartite meetings to ensure stability in Syria and the wider region.

Iran said it supports the steps taken between Türkiye and the Bashar Assad regime.

'France losing credibility'

Upon a question regarding Erdoğan's previous invitation to France to the Organization of Turkic States, Erdoğan said President Emmanuel Macron is "not honest."

"We want international politics to be built upon honesty. Where there is no honesty, there is no dignity. Of course, there are many such leaders in the world. Unfortunately, in relations with Greece in the Mediterranean, they ignore Türkiye and enter into different relations with them," Erdoğan said.

He added France is rapidly losing its reputation in Africa, including in Mali and Burkina Faso.

"Now, he (President Emanuel Macron) has lost his credibility in the parliament...France is constantly losing credibility. It is losing credibility in the international community as well," said Erdoğan.

Stressing that Türkiye's relations with the Turkic Republics, including Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, are increasing day by day, Erdoğan said Ankara is doing its part not only for the Turkic republics, but also for relations with Libya as well.