Stockholm fulfills the memorandum with which it signed Turkey for Ankara to give the “green light” to its accession Sweden And her Finland However, compromises on freedom of speech in NATO are not part of this memorandum, Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billström said.

The Swedish foreign minister told the TT news agency that “religion is not part of the agreement” signed with Turkey.

He also stressed that he understands Turkey’s anger over incidents that, while legal, are disrespectful. He added that now all parties need to calm down and that negotiations with Turkey will continue.

Ankara signed a memorandum with Stockholm and Helsinki at the NATO summit last June to pave the way for Sweden and Finland to join the Alliance.

However, a series of protests in Sweden against Turkey and its President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, as well as the burning of the Quran by a far-right Danish-Swedish politician in the Swedish capital last month, caused Ankara to “freeze” negotiations on Sweden’s NATO membership.

Now Erdogan has raised the issue of approving the entry into the Alliance of Finland, but not Sweden.

Earlier, the Turkish President repeated Ankara’s negative position regarding Sweden’s entry into NATO.

“We are closely following developments regarding NATO expansion. Sweden, don’t overdo it! As long as you allow my holy book, the Quran, to be burned, torn apart, and for this to happen under your protection, we will not say yes to joining NATO. On the question of Finland our opinion is positive, but on Sweden it is negative. Know this,” the Turkish president added.

^{According to DPA, APE-MPE}