Turkey condemns vile, sacrilegious Sweden protest

STOCKHOLM: Protests in Stockholm on Saturday in opposition to Turkey and Sweden’s bid to affix NATO, together with the burning of a duplicate of the Holy Quran, sharply heightened tensions with Turkey at a time when the Nordic nation wants Ankara’s backing to achieve entry to the army alliance.

“We condemn within the strongest doable phrases the vile assault on our holy ebook … Allowing this anti-Islam act, which targets Muslims and insults our sacred values, beneath the guise of freedom of expression is totally unacceptable,” the Turkish Overseas Ministry mentioned.

Its assertion was issued after an anti-immigrant politician from the far-right fringe burned a duplicate of the Holy Quran close to the Turkish Embassy. The Turkish ministry urged Sweden to take vital actions in opposition to the perpetrators and invited all international locations to take concrete steps in opposition to Islamophobia.

A separate protest befell within the metropolis supporting Kurds and in opposition to Sweden’s bid to affix NATO. A gaggle of pro-Turkish demonstrators additionally held a rally exterior the embassy. All three occasions had police permits.

A spokesperson at Sweden’s Overseas Ministry mentioned they might not instantly remark.

The Holy Quran-burning was carried out by Rasmus Paludan, chief of Danish far-right political get together Onerous Line. Paludan, who additionally has Swedish citizenship, has held quite a lot of demonstrations prior to now the place he has burned the Holy Quran.

Paludan couldn’t instantly be reached by e-mail for a remark. Within the allow he obtained from police, it says his protest was held in opposition to Islam and what it known as Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan’s try to affect freedom of expression in Sweden.

Sweden and Finland utilized final 12 months to affix NATO following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine however all 30 member states should approve their bids. Turkey has mentioned Sweden particularly should first take a clearer stance in opposition to what it sees as terrorists, primarily Kurdish militants and a bunch it blames for a 2016 coup try.

On the demonstration to protest Sweden’s NATO bid and to indicate help for Kurds, audio system stood in entrance of a big purple banner studying “We’re all PKK”, referring to the Kurdistan Employees Get together that’s outlawed in Turkey, Sweden, and the USA amongst different international locations, and addressed a number of hundred pro-Kurdish and left-wing supporters.

“We’ll proceed our opposition to the Swedish NATO utility,” Thomas Pettersson, spokesperson for Alliance In opposition to NATO and one in all organizers of the demonstration, advised Reuters.

Police mentioned the scenario was calm in any respect three demonstrations.

Earlier on Saturday, Turkey mentioned that as a result of lack of measures to limit protests, it had cancelled a deliberate go to to Ankara by the Swedish defence minister.

“At this level, the go to of Swedish Protection Minister Pal Jonson to Turkey on January 27 has grow to be meaningless. So we cancelled the go to,” Defence Minister Hulusi Akar mentioned.

Jonson mentioned individually that he and Akar had met on Friday throughout a gathering of Western allies in Germany and had determined to postpone the deliberate assembly.

Akar mentioned he had mentioned with Erdogan the shortage of measures to limit protests in Sweden in opposition to Turkey and had conveyed Ankara’s response to Jonson on the sidelines of a gathering of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group.

“It’s unacceptable to not make a transfer or react to those (protests). The mandatory issues wanted to be executed, measures ought to have been taken,” Akar mentioned, in accordance with an announcement by Turkish Defence Ministry.

Turkey’s Overseas Ministry had already summoned Sweden’s ambassador on Friday over the deliberate protests.

Finland and Sweden signed a three-way settlement with Turkey in 2022 geared toward overcoming Ankara’s objections to their membership of NATO. Sweden says it has fulfilled its a part of the memorandum however Turkey is demanding extra, together with extradition of 130 folks it deems to be terrorists.