The issue of Sweden's joining NATO, which had been hindered months ago due to Turkey's opposition under the pretext of Stockholm's support for the Kurds, has now faced more difficulty.

It is true that Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is using his opposition to Sweden and Finland joining NATO to put pressure on the Kurdish opposition living in these countries, however according to the report of the Nordic magazine, some Swedish citizens who consider the expansion of NATO as a cause of increasing tension between the West and Russia do not want their country becomes a member of this military organization.

Among the 30 NATO member countries, only Turkey and Hungary have not approved the accession bill of Sweden and Finland in their parliament. Turkey has played a greater role in the non-realization of these two countries joining NATO due to the fact that it has made Sweden's agreement to this demand subject to this country's confrontation with the Kurdish organizations.

But last Saturday's demonstration in Sweden, in which Kurds and opponents of NATO expansion participated, was accompanied by the extreme action of a citizen of this country in burning the Holy Quran. The continued presence of Kurds protesting in the streets of Stockholm and the extreme action of this citizen angered Erdogan so much that he said: "Sweden should not expect Turkey to support the country's accession to NATO."

According to Associated Press and Reuters, Erdogan, in addition to expressing his anger towards the extreme act of the Swedish citizen near the Turkish embassy in Sweden, the continuation of Kurdish protesting activities in this country and the organization of protests by Kurdish organizations, is determined not to agree to the demand by Sweden.

According to Western media reports, the Kurdish protests have helped to highlight opposition to NATO expansion, which, according to Newsweek, only benefits Russia.

Some analysts believe that the continued US approval process for the sale of F-16 fighters to Turkey and Ankara's re-entry into the F-35 fighter production program is also related to the joining of these two countries to NATO. And if Finland ignores NATO and Kurdish activities in these countries, the US government, despite the opposition of some members of the Congress and the Senate, can speed up the delivery of F-16 to Turkey.

Days ado, Ned Price, the spokesman of the US State Department, supported the joining of Sweden and Finland, but emphasized that the issue of Turkey's opposition to the joining of these two countries under the pretext of the active presence of the Kurds in these two countries should be resolved by these three countries.

Turkey's opposition to Finland joining NATO has become less prominent, which could be due to the less activity of the Kurds in this country. According to Bloomberg, about 100,000 Kurdish citizens live in Sweden, and some Kurds have also been able to enter the country's parliament. Officials of the Kurdish self-governing administration in northern Syria have also visited this country many times, and the office of this Kurdish organization has also been opened in Stockholm.

Finland's P World TV quoted Finland Foreign Minister, Pekka Havisto, as saying that this country may abandon the joint agreement between Turkey-Sweden-Finland and NATO to join this military organization, and following Turkey's strong opposition to Sweden's request, it will go alone for joining NATO.

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