ANKARA ¨C Two provocative incidents in Stockholm this month have energized Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ahead of tight elections and dimmed Sweden and Finland¡¯s hopes of joining NATO before the summer, diplomats, analysts and opposition politicians say.
Erdogan was quick to thrust the issue of NATO expansion into domestic politics after a copy of the Muslim holy book, the Quran, was burned at the weekend, and an effigy of the Turkish leader was strung from a lamppost a week earlier.
The incidents, while not illegal in Sweden, hobbled Stockholm¡¯s effort to win Ankara¡¯s support for its bid to join U.S.-led NATO, which Sweden made last May alongside Finland in the face of Russia¡¯s invasion of Ukraine.
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