Croatia is also boycotting the Nobel Prize ceremony

In a statement to Dagens Nyheter, the country's embassy writes that they have already expressed concern that the Nobel Prize has been awarded to the author, who in recent months has stirred up extensive debate because of his previous support for Serbia's former president Slobodan Milosevic in the Yugoslav war.

"That policy led to wars in the areas of former Yugoslavia, which resulted in thousands of lives lost, the displacement of many people and a prolonged instability in this part of Europe," writes the Croatian embassy in the DN statement.

The decision follows in the wake of Albania, Turkey and even Kosovo in protest deciding to withdraw its presence at the awards ceremony on Tuesday night. The message that Turkey will not be present came as late as Monday afternoon. The Turkish Ministry of Defense has previously condemned the award of the 2019 Nobel Prize to Peter Handke.

"Handke, is a denier of the Bosnian genocide and a strong supporter of Milosevic who was the perpetrator of the Bosnian genocides and the murderer of our Bosnian brothers," the embassy previously announced.

Kosovo was the first country to announce last week that they would not participate. In a post on Facebook, then Foreign Minister Behgjet Pacolli wrote:

"I confirm that our ambassador Shkendije Geci Sherifi will boycott the event because of the controversial Nobel Prize winner Peter Handke, a friend and supporter of Milosevic's policy".

On Sunday, Albania did the same. The embassy writes an e-mail to SVT that it partly has "solidarity with and grief for the Albanians in Kosovo who suffered much from the genocide of Yugoslavia's former president Slobodan Milosevic".

It is part of the Nobel Foundation's routines that all foreign ambassadors stationed in Sweden are invited to the Nobel Prize ceremony at the Concert Hall in Stockholm.

The Swedish Academy's choice of Nobel Laureate in 2019 has been far from uncontroversial and the debate over whether the author Peter Handke should have been awarded the award has been going on full force since the announcement on October 10.

In an earlier interview with SVT, Handke has firmly denied the allegations that he denied the genocide in Srebrenica.

The text is updated.