ISTANBUL: In response to the burning of the Koran outside of Ankara’s embassy in Stockholm, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan cautioned Sweden on Monday that it should not anticipate his support for its application to join NATO.
The possibility of Sweden and Finland joining the Western defence alliance before Turkey’s presidential and legislative elections in May was further diminished by Erdogan’s enraged remarks.
Only Turkey and Hungary have not accepted the historic decision by the Nordic neighbours to violate their long-standing military non-alignment in reaction to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Viktor Orban, the prime minister of Hungary, has pledged that the two bids will be approved by his parliament next month.
But Erdogan has dug in his heels heading into a close election in which he is trying to energise his nationalist electoral base.
In his first public response to a rally on Saturday that the Swedish police had authorised against Turkey’s concerns, an anti-Islam politician had acted, Erdogan said, “Sweden should not expect cooperation from us for NATO.”
Erdogan stated that individuals who produced such a scandal in front of our embassy in their nation “may no longer anticipate any charity from us about their application for NATO membership.”
While vehemently denouncing the conduct of far-right politician Rasmus Paludan, Swedish politicians defended their nation’s expansive notion of free speech.
Erdogan Action
Erdogan has already laid out a number of stringent requirements, one of which is that Sweden extradite dozens of individuals, most of whom are Kurds, who Ankara either accuses of “terrorism” or of taking part in a botched 2016 attempt.
Stockholm has also enacted a constitutional amendment that will make it possible to pass tougher anti-terror laws demanded by Ankara.
But things turned sour when a small Kurdish group hung an effigy of Erdogan outside Stockholm’s city hall earlier this month.
Turkey summoned the Swedish ambassador and revoked an invitation for its parliament speaker to visit Ankara.
The Swedish police decision to approve Paludan’s protests drew a similar response.
Turkey summoned Stockholm’s ambassador for another dressing down and cancelled a planned visit by Sweden’s defence minister.
Erdogan said the burning of the Muslim holy book was a hate crime that could not be defended by free speech.
“No one has the right to humiliate the saints,” he said in nationally televised remarks.