An open-air event at the Turkish embassy will further increase tensions between the two countries
Turkey condemned a protest involving the burning of Korans in Sweden on Saturday, stoking tensions between the two countries over Stockholm’s NATO bid.
The demonstration in Stockholm, which took place under heavy police cover outside the Turkish embassy, brought together another hundred people and a crowd of journalists, France-Press Agency reported.
The far-right Danish Rasmus Paludan, who also has Swedish citizenship and organized the event, gave an hour-long speech in opposition to Islam and immigration before setting fire to a copy of the Koran.
The day before, the Turkish Foreign Ministry had summoned the Swedish ambassador about the authorization granted to the Paludan demonstration. At the time, Sweden’s ambassador to Turkey had been summoned this month after having to answer for a set-up on January 12 in which a Kurdish organization hung an effigy of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Stockholm.
The previous Saturday, Ankara cancelled a Jan. 27 discussion through Swedish Defense Minister Pål Johnson that was intended to be a discussion about Turkey’s refusal to ratify Sweden’s membership in NATO.
Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said the assembly was cancelled because it “lost its importance and significance. “
Jonson, however, announced that the assembly was postponed after talks with Akar on Friday at the U. S. Army base in Ramstein, Germany.
“Our relationship with Turkey is very similar to Sweden, and we look forward to continuing the discussion on non-unusual security and defense issues at a later date,” he tweeted on Saturday.
Ahead of Saturday’s Paludan event, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu called it a “hate crime” called freedom of expression, and called on Sweden not to allow the “despicable act. “
The Stockholm protest was also denounced through İbrahim Kalın, Erdoğan’s senior adviser.
“The burning of the Holy Quran in Stockholm is a transparent crime of hate and humanity,” Kalın tweeted. “We condemn this vehemently. Allowing this action despite all our warnings encourages hate crimes and Islamophobia. The attack on sacred values is not freedom but fashionable barbarism.
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The Swede has sought to distance himself from the protest, and Foreign Minister Tobias Billström condemned it on Saturday.
“Islamophobic provocations are appalling,” Billström tweeted. Sweden has wonderful freedom of speech, but that doesn’t mean the Swedish government, or myself, supports the criticisms expressed. “
Turkey proved to be an impediment to Sweden and Finland’s historic bid for the NATO club after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which marked a setback to decades of Nordic neutrality. Sweden and Finland have won approval from 28 NATO members, with the exception of Hungary and Turkey.
In November, Hungarian President Viktor Orbán said his parliament would ratify the NATO club for Sweden and Finland in early 2023. But Turkey is still holding back, it is not easy to extradite to Sweden other people it claims have links to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party. (PKK), designated as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the EU and the US. The U. S. clergyman, or outlawed cleric Fethullah Gülen.
This article was updated on January 23, 2023 to explain that Rasmus Paludan is a far-right politician in Denmark with dual citizenship.