During an hour-long interview with TRT, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had tough words for Sweden. He reiterated that Ankara won't back Sweden's NATO bid, if it continues to allow the burning of the Quran and fails to crack down on terror groups. Sweden and Finland applied to join NATO last year, but have faced opposition from Türkiye.

President Erdogan said Sweden has not lived up to the commitments it made to join the alliance, while also turning a blind eye on hate crimes against Muslims. Last week, Swedish authorities allowed an extremist to burn a copy of the Quran in front of the Turkish embassy, sparking global outrage. Erdogan made the warnings about the rise of Islamophobia days after the Turkish foreign ministry issued a travel alert for the US and Europe. It cited a surge in anti-Muslim and racist acts, including growing anti-Turkish rhetoric being pushed by the PKK terror group. In recent weeks, Sweden has seen several large anti-Turkish protests.

Guests:

Amina Shareef

Researcher at University of Cambridge

Tarik Oguzlu

Professor at Istanbul Aydin University