A burnt Koran holds back Sweden and Finland from joining NATO

NOBODY KNOWSNATONATONATOPKK what prompted Rasmus Paludan to burn a copy of the Koran in front of the Turkish embassy in Stockholm on January 21st. Mr Paludan, an attention-hogging far-right Danish politician, had torched Korans before, but his choice of location was significant: Turkey is holding up the . Mr Paludan’s demonstration permit was paid for by a Swedish journalist who once worked for a Kremlin propaganda channel, though the journalist denies any current connection to Russia. The Koran-burning led to anti-Swedish demonstrations across the Muslim world. Two days later Recep Tayyip Erdogan, , suspended his talks on accession with both countries.It has been more than nine months since Finland and Sweden decided to give up their long-standing non-aligned status and join , after Russia invaded Ukraine. Their accession has been ratified by 28 of the alliance’s 30 members. Hungary says it will ratify it soon. But Turkey has demanded that both countries first crack down on residents linked to movements that it considers anti-Turkish terrorists, mainly the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or . The three countries struck a deal last summer, and Finland and Sweden say they have done what they promised. Yet Turkey says it is not enough.