Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan Erdogan closed the door on providing support to Sweden for its accession to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) after the incident in which demonstrators burned a copy of the Koran during protests in StockholmAP writes.
Erdogan criticized Rasmus Paludan’s Koran-burning protest on Saturday, saying it was an insult to everyone, especially Muslims. He too criticized the Swedish authorities for allowing the demonstration to take place in front of the Turkish embassy in Stockholm.
“The ugly act in Sweden is an insult to everyone who respects the fundamental rights and freedoms of people, especially Muslims.”
The weekend protests in Stockholm were led by anti-Islam activist and pro-Kurdish groups.
Erdogan also criticized Sweden for the pro-Kurdish protests, where demonstrators waved flags of various Kurdish groups, including the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which has led a decade-long insurgency against Turkey. The PKK is considered a terrorist group in Turkey, the European Union and the United States, but its symbols are not banned in Sweden.
“So that you will let terrorist organizations run wild and then expect our support to join NATO. This will not happen,” Erdogan said, referring to the bids of Sweden and Finland to join the military alliance. He said that if Sweden does not show respect for Turkey or Muslims, then “they will not see support from us on the issue of NATO “.
Turkey holds back the historic bids of the northern nations for NATO membership.
Sweden’s Prime Minister Ulf Kristerson criticized the protesters for hanging an effigy of the Turkish president on a pole at a street lamp last week and criticized them for compromising the country’s NATO membership.
