– Those who allow such blasphemy in front of our embassy can no longer expect to get our support for NATO membership, said Turkey’s powerful President Recep Tayyip Erdogan after a government meeting in Istanbul on Monday evening.
The burning of the Koran outside Turkey’s embassy in Stockholm on Saturday is now having major political consequences and is causing headaches for both the Swedish government and NATO.
– If you love members of terrorist organizations and enemies of Islam so much and protect them, then we advise you to (rather) seek your support for your country’s security, Erdogan said, according to Reuters.
The Danish-Swedish right-wing radical politician Rasmus Paludan was behind the Koran burning. This led to major protests both in Sweden and in Turkey. Outside the Swedish consulate in Istanbul, angry protesters set fire to a Swedish flag.
The Turkish government called the Koran burning a racist hate crime. Swedish politicians condemned the Koran burning, but it doesn’t seem to have helped. From Turkey’s side, it is difficult to understand that the Swedish police could allow the burning of the Koran to take place.
Erdogan also criticizes Swedish authorities for allowing Kurdish groups to demonstrate with PKK flags.
– You allow terrorist organizations to run amok and at the same time expect support for NATO membership. It will not happen, says Erdogan, writes the news agency Ap.
Turkey has previously canceled the planned visit by Sweden’s foreign minister. Several Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Kuwait, also condemned the embassy demonstration in Stockholm.
Relations with Sweden turned sour when a doll representing President Erdogan was hung by its legs outside Stockholm City Hall earlier this month. A Kurdish group was behind it.
Will not comment on the matter
Whether Erdogan’s statement is a final no to Sweden is not clear, but it must be seen as a clear marking towards Sweden.
Foreign Minister Tobias Billström will not comment on the statement from the Turkish president.
Photo: JOHN MACDOUGALL/AFP
– I cannot comment on the statement tonight without understanding exactly what was said. But Sweden will respect the agreement made between Sweden, Finland and Turkey regarding our NATO membership, says Sweden’s Foreign Minister Tobias Billström to the Swedish media.
At a defense conference in Sälen a short time ago, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson presented large-scale plans for what Sweden will contribute to NATO. Swedish Jas 39 Gripen fighters will patrol the Baltic countries and the Swedish army will offer soldiers to the countries in the east. After decades of Swedish neutrality, the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine has turned Swedish security policy on its head.
Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has also been clear that he wants both Sweden and Finland in the alliance. With Erdogan’s latest move makes things more complicated, not to mention a crisis for Sweden.
Turkey and Hungary are the only countries that have not yet approved Sweden and Finland’s NATO applications.
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Sweden and Turkey have an agreement on the table that they agreed on this summer, but Turkey has hesitated to sign.
Among other things, the Swedes have opened the door to resuming arms exports. But the problem is that Turkey believes Sweden has largely been a haven for what it believes are Kurdish terrorists and has sent Sweden a long list of people it wants extradited.
This applies, among other things, to former members of the Kurdish resistance movement PKK who want a free Kurdistan, which is completely out of the question for Turkey. The PKK is considered a terrorist organization in Turkey. Turkey wants to extradite people who were involved in the coup attempt in 2016. It concerns 130 people in total.
Turkish election campaign
Both NATO and the international community are used to Turkey using its strategic location as a bargaining chip to highlight its interests. And several analysts have pointed out that Turkey is not going to approve a Swedish membership in Nato ahead of the Turkish elections on 14 May.
The reason is that Erdogan needs to show strength internationally to get the support he needs.
