Protests including the burning of the Koran in Stockholm on Saturday escalated tensions between Sweden and Turkey at a time when the Scandinavian country needs Ankara’s support to join NATO.
“We condemn in the strongest terms this despicable attack on our holy book,” Turkey’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement. “Permitting this anti-Islamic act, which targets Muslims and insults our sacred values under the cover of freedom of expression, is totally unacceptable.”
The statement was issued after a far-right anti-immigration politician burned a Quran near the Turkish embassy. The Turkish Foreign Ministry urged Sweden to take necessary measures against the perpetrators and called on all countries to take concrete steps against Islamophobia.
A separate protest took place in the city in support of the Kurds and against Sweden’s bid to join NATO, and a group of pro-Turkish demonstrators marched in front of the embassy. The three events were with police clearance.
Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billström said Saturday that the anti-Islamic provocations were appalling.
“Sweden has far-reaching freedom of expression, but that does not mean that the government or I myself support the opinions that are expressed,” Billstrom added on Twitter.
Rasmus Paludan, leader of the Danish far-right Hard Line party, burned a copy of the Koran. Paludan, who also holds Swedish citizenship, organized a number of demonstrations before, during which he burned copies of the Koran.
AFP could not immediately reach Paludan via email for comment. The statement he obtained from the police stated that his protest was against Islam and what he called the attempt by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to influence freedom of expression in Sweden.
Several Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Kuwait, also condemned the burning of the Qur’an. In a statement, the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs affirmed “the Kingdom’s firm position calling for the importance of spreading the values of dialogue, tolerance and coexistence, and rejecting hatred and extremism.”
Sweden and Finland last year applied to join NATO in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but both applications must be approved by all 30 member states. Turkey says Sweden in particular must first take a clearer stance against what it considers terrorists, mostly Kurdish militants and the group it blames for the 2016 coup attempt.
At the demonstration, which was held to protest Sweden’s bid to join NATO and to show support for the Kurds, speakers stood in front of a large red banner that read “We are all the PKK,” referring to the group banned in Turkey, Sweden, the United States and other countries. Speakers addressed several hundred pro-Kurds and leftists.
“We will continue our opposition to Sweden’s request to join NATO,” Thomas Peterson, a spokesman for the coalition against NATO and one of the organizers of the demonstration, told Archyde.com.
Police said the situation was calm during the three demonstrations.
In Istanbul, angry people, among a group of about 200 protesters, set fire to the Swedish flag in front of the Swedish consulate in response to the burning of the Koran.
Cancellation of the visit of the Minister of Defense
Earlier Saturday, Turkey said that due to a lack of measures to curb protests, it had canceled a planned visit by the Swedish defense minister to Ankara.
“At this stage, Swedish Defense Minister Pal Johnson’s visit to Turkey on January 27 has become meaningless. That is why we canceled the visit,” Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said.
Johnson said separately that he and Akar met on Friday during a gathering of Western allies in Germany and decided to postpone the scheduled meeting.
Akar said he discussed with Erdogan the lack of measures to curb protests in Sweden against Turkey and conveyed Ankara’s response to Johnson on the sidelines of the defense contact group meeting on Ukraine.
“It is unacceptable that no step or response was taken in the face of these protests. The necessary measures should have been taken,” Akar said, according to a statement from the Turkish Defense Ministry.
On Friday, the Turkish Foreign Ministry already summoned the Swedish ambassador over the planned protests.
Finland and Sweden signed a trilateral agreement with Turkey in 2022 aimed at overcoming Ankara’s objections to their joining NATO. Stockholm says it has fulfilled its part of the agreement but Turkey demands more, including the extradition of 130 people it considers terrorists.