OREANDA-NEWS Most Finnish citizens are confident that their country should not give up its principles in order to meet Turkey's demands to join NATO.

"70% of Finns believe that Finland should not change its legislation or abandon its principles because of the conditions put forward by Turkey. Only 14% consider it possible for Finland to make concessions, and the rest do not have a clear opinion yet", according to the data of a public opinion poll conducted by Kantar TNS for the Helsingin Sanomat newspaper.

At the same time, 79% of respondents support the country's accession to NATO, 11% oppose and 10% are undecided. This is the highest rate in the history of measurements by Helsingin Sanomat. Support for NATO membership has increased in almost all sections of the population and among the majority of members of various political organizations.

In the previous poll, taken in early May, support for NATO was 73%, which was also the highest at the time.

Finland and Sweden applied for NATO membership on May 18, and the applications were supposed to be discussed at the alliance's summit at the end of June. However, consideration of applications from Finland and Sweden is blocked by Turkey which makes a number of claims. In particular, there is an accusation of the countries of supporting Kurdish groups, which are considered terrorist in Turkey.