Turkey cancels Swedish minister visit over right-wing protest - Al Jazeera English

Turkey has been angered by Sweden’s greenish airy for a protestation successful beforehand of its embassy successful Stockholm.

Turkey has cancelled a sojourn by Sweden’s defence curate implicit a planned objection by a right-wing hardline radical successful Stockholm.

A time aft summoning the Swedish ambassador implicit the issue, Turkey said connected Saturday it was cancelling the sojourn aimed astatine overcoming Turkey’s objections to its NATO membership.

Turkey has been angered by Sweden’s greenish airy for a protestation successful beforehand of its embassy successful the capital, Stockholm, amid ongoing tensions pursuing Ankara’s objections to Sweden’s bid to join the NATO subject alliance.

“At this point, Swedish Defence Minister Pal Jonson’s sojourn to Turkey connected January 27 has mislaid its value and meaning, truthful we cancelled the visit,” Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar said, adding that Sweden has failed to instrumentality measures against “disgusting” anti-Turkish protests connected their soil.

Sweden’s defence ministry gave Swedish-Danish person Rasmus Paludan, from the far-right Stram Kurs (Hard Line) party, support to signifier the rally connected Saturday, during which helium said helium intended to “burn the Quran”, Islam’s beatified book.

Organisers said astir 500 to 600 radical were expected to stitchery to protestation against Sweden’s NATO bid and amusement enactment for Kurds.

In April past year, Paludan’s announcement of a Quran burning “tour” during the Muslim beatified period of Ramadan sparked riots crossed Sweden.

Turkish statesmanlike spokesperson Ibrahim Kalin condemned the planned objection arsenic a “clear transgression of hatred”.

“Allowing this enactment contempt each our warnings is encouraging hatred crimes and Islamophobia,” helium tweeted. “The onslaught connected ineffable values is not state but modern barbarism.”

Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billström told TT quality bureau connected Friday that Sweden respects the state of speech.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said helium hoped Swedish authorities would not let the protestation to instrumentality place.

“This support is granted to this person, contempt each our warnings. I anticipation Swedish authorities volition instrumentality indispensable measures and volition not let this,” Cavusoglu told reporters, adding that the protestation could not classified arsenic state of expression.

Billström did not privation to speculate connected however Paludan’s protestation would impact Sweden’s NATO bid, but noted that “everything that prolongs the process unnecessarily is of people thing we instrumentality precise seriously”.

Meanwhile, pro-Turkish and pro-Kurdish groups were besides readying demonstrations successful the Swedish capital.

Turkey summoned the Swedish ambassador connected Friday to condemn the protests, saying rallies by pro-Kurdish groups linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) would beryllium a usurpation of the associated memorandum signed betwixt Turkey, Sweden and Finland that prevented a Turkish veto for the Nordic countries’ NATO accession successful June.

Sweden and neighbouring Finland dropped decades of subject non-alignment past twelvemonth erstwhile they applied to articulation the Western defence confederation successful effect to Russia’s penetration of Ukraine.

Turkey has truthful acold refused to o.k. their bids, which request sign-off by each subordinate states, and tied its favourable ballot to Swedish steps to extradite radical it accuses of coercion oregon of having played a portion successful the 2016 coup effort against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Turkey argues that Sweden is not doing capable to ace down connected Kurdish groups that Ankara views arsenic “terrorists”.

Sweden’s ambassador to Turkey was summoned past week aft a video posted by a Kurdish radical successful Stockholm that depicted Erdogan swinging by his legs from a rope.

A tweet by the group, Rojava Committee of Sweden, compared Erdogan with Italy’s Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, who was hung upside down aft his execution successful the closing days of World War II.

Earlier successful January, an effigy of the Turkish president was hung from a lamp-post during a protestation by Kurds. Turkey denounced a determination by a Swedish authoritative not to analyse and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson called the protestation an enactment of “sabotage” against Sweden’s bid to articulation NATO.

Source

:

Al Jazeera and quality agencies