Status: 01/21/2023 12:06 p.m
It was supposed to be about Sweden joining NATO – but now Ankara has canceled a meeting with Swedish Defense Minister Jonson. The reason is the planned demonstration by a right-wing extremist in front of the Turkish embassy in Stockholm.
The Turkish government has canceled a planned visit to Ankara by Swedish Defense Minister Pål Jonson. The background to this is the protests planned for today in Stockholm, during which a Koran is also to be burned.
Sweden has failed to take action against “disgusting anti-Turkish protests” on its soil, the state news agency Anadolu quoted Turkey’s Defense Minister Hulusi Akar as saying. Turkey has summoned the Swedish ambassador to Ankara, officials from diplomatic circles said. A spokesman for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke of “encouraging hate crimes”.
Right-wing extremist wants to burn the Koran
Ankara is upset that the Swedish government allowed Danish-born right-wing extremist Rasmus Paludan to demonstrate in front of the Turkish embassy in Stockholm.
Paludan – who also has Swedish citizenship – is the head of the anti-Islamic and anti-immigrant party Stram Kurs (Strammer Course) and has had the Koran burned at gatherings in Swedish cities on several occasions. This also sparked repeated clashes between counter-demonstrators and police.
In addition to the protest action by the right-wing extremist, several pro-Kurdish and pro-Turkish demonstrations are also expected in Stockholm.
Talks about joining NATO planned
Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billström told the TT news agency that freedom of speech is respected. He declined to speculate on how Paludan’s protest might affect NATO accession. “Anything that unnecessarily lengthens the process is of course something we take very seriously,” said Billstrom.
During his visit, Jonson actually wanted to ensure that Turkey gave up its opposition to Sweden joining NATO. The Scandinavian country and neighboring Finland applied for membership in May 2022 following the Russian attack on Ukraine.
Turkey has made ratification of Sweden’s NATO entry conditional on Sweden taking action against Kurdish rebels and other groups Ankara sees as a threat to national security. The consent of all 30 NATO members is required for accession.
Jonson: Meeting in Ankara just postponed
Jonson himself played down the cancellation of his visit. “Yesterday I met my Turkish colleague Hulusi Akar at the US military airfield in Ramstein, Germany,” he wrote on Twitter. They had decided to postpone the planned meeting in Ankara to a later date.
Second convocation of the Swedish ambassador
It is the second convocation of the Swedish ambassador within a few days. A protest action last week had led to tensions between the two countries. In central Stockholm, activists had hung a doll resembling Erdogan by its feet. Sweden’s Kurdish Rojava Committee – a group of supporters of the region in northern Syria known to the Kurds as Rojava – claimed responsibility for the filmed action.
As a result, Turkey canceled a visit by the Swedish Parliament President Andreas Norlén to Ankara. The Swedish government condemned the incident. However, prosecutors decided not to investigate.