Helsinki - (AFP) - The Finnish Ministry of Defense announced on Wednesday that it had granted an authorization to export military equipment to Turkey after suspending its export since the fall of 2019, due to Turkey's launch of a military operation in Syria.

The ministry's special adviser, Rika Petkanen, told AFP that the export license relates to steel that will be used to make armor.

"No commercial export licenses have been issued to Turkey since October 2019," Petkanen added.

The resumption of licenses to export military equipment is one of the conditions set by Ankara to give the green light to Finland and Sweden's accession to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

Stockholm lifted the suspension of exporting this equipment to Turkey at the end of September.

This announcement comes after Ankara on Tuesday postponed talks with Sweden and Finland about their accession to NATO, coinciding with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's condemnation of Stockholm for allowing a demonstration during which a far-right activist burned a copy of the Qur'an in front of the Turkish embassy in Sweden.

The Finnish Defense Minister's decision was immediately criticized by one of the parties involved in Prime Minister Sanna Marin's government.
Left Alliance party leader Lee Anderson said on Twitter that her party "does not support exporting defense equipment to countries at war or violating human rights. We believe Finland should not grant an export license to Turkey."