Reuters
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Minister of Defense of Turkey Hulusi Arch said on Saturday that his visit plans swedish couple to Ankara It was canceled after Swedish authorities allowed protests in Stockholm.
Protests in Stockholm on Saturday opposed Turkey and Sweden’s bids to join NATO, including the burning of the Quran. This heightens tensions with Turkey at a time when the Nordic country needs Ankara’s support to enter into a military alliance.
“We condemn it as strongly as possible. A vile attack on our Sacred Scriptures… permitting this anti-Islamic action. which aims at Muslims and insults our sacred values. Under the guise of freedom of expression is completely unacceptable,” the Turkish foreign ministry said.
The statement came after far-right, anti-immigrant politicians burned a Koran near the Turkish embassy. Turkish ministry urges Sweden to take necessary action against perpetrators and invites all countries to take concrete action against Islamophobia
Separate protests took place in the city pro-Kurdish and against Sweden’s bid to join NATO. Pro-Turkey protesters also held rallies outside the embassy. All three events have a police license.
Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billström said the provocations against Islamophobia were horrendous.
“Sweden has wide freedom of expression. But that doesn’t mean that the Swedish government or myself. Support the opinions expressed,” Billstrom said on Twitter.
The burning of the Quran was carried out by Rasmus Paludan, the leader of Denmark’s far-right political party Hard Line. have marched many times before in which he burned the Quran
Paludan could not immediately be reached by email for comment. in the license he received from the police Stated that his protests were organized against Islam. And it is what is being called an attempt by Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan to influence freedom of expression in Sweden.
Many Arab countries such as Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Kuwait condemn the burning of the Koran. “Saudi Arabia calls for the spread of the values of dialogue, tolerance and coexistence. and rejects hatred and extremism,” the Saudi foreign ministry said in a statement.
Sweden and Finland applied to join NATO last year after Russia invaded Ukraine, but all 30 member states had to approve their proposal. Turkey said Sweden, in particular, needs to take a clearer stance on what it views as terrorists. especially the Kurdish armed groups and groups that Turkey blames for the 2016 coup attempt.
In a protest to protest Sweden’s NATO proposal and to show support for the Kurdish people. The speaker stood in front of a large red banner that read “We are all PKK,” referring to the illegal Kurdistan Workers’ Party in Turkey, Sweden and the United States. among other countries and addressed hundreds of Kurdish and left-wing supporters.
“We will continue to oppose Sweden’s application to join NATO,” Thomas Pettersson, a spokesman for the Alliance Against NATO and one of the organizers of the protest, told Reuters.
Police said the situation had calmed over the three rallies.
last saturday Turkey said that due to the lack of measures to curb protests Turkey therefore canceled a planned Swedish defense minister’s visit to Ankara.
“At this point, the visit by Swedish Defense Minister Pal Jonson on January 27 to Turkey was meaningless. So we canceled the visit,” Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said.
