Burning of a Koran in Sweden reignites tensions with Turkey

• Enlargement Alliance Erdogan would accept Finland into NATO, but not Sweden

Turkey canceled this Saturday a visit by the Swedish Defense Minister, in response to the authorization of an anti-Turkish protest in Stockholm, unleashing new tensions in the framework of the negotiations for the accession of the Scandinavian country to NATO.

"Defense Minister Pal Jonson's visit to

January 27 has lost its meaning and meaning, so we canceled the visit," Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said.

The visit was aimed at

Sweden's accession to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which requires the unanimity of its members.

Turkey has shown its anger over the permission obtained by a right-wing extremist, Rasmus Paludan, to demonstrate this Saturday in front of the Ankara embassy in the Swedish capital.

The anti-immigration extremist

, ​​as planned.

The Swedish police considered on Friday that the Constitution and

of the Scandinavian country

in the name of public order.

"Hate Crime"

"Authorizing this action despite all our warnings is encouraging hate crimes and Islamophobia," Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin tweeted.

"The attack on sacred values ​​is not freedom but modern barbarism," he added.

The Swedish Defense Minister said for his part that the decision to "postpone" his visit to Turkey was taken in conjunction with his Turkish counterpart on Friday during a meeting on Ukraine in Ramstein (Germany).

"Relations with Turkey are very important to Sweden and we are happy to continue the dialogue (...) on a future occasion," Pal Jonson said on Twitter.

Turkey had already summoned the Swedish ambassador to Ankara on Friday to "condemn this provocative action which clearly constitutes a hate crime (...)", according to a diplomatic source.

It was the second time in a few days that the Swedish representative in Ankara was summoned by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, after the publication last week of a video showing a hanged mannequin, identified as Turkish President

A demonstration in support of the Kurds and

also took place in the city center on Saturday.

Hundreds of people demonstrated with flags of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), an organization considered terrorist by the European Union and Turkey.

Turkey has been blocking the candidacies of Sweden and Finland for NATO since May, considering that these two countries are sanctuaries for members of the PKK and other organizations that it defines as "terrorists". For Ankara, any progress in the negotiations depends on Sweden extradite people accused of terrorism by Turkey or of having participated in the 2016 coup attempt against Erdogan.Sweden and Finland, two traditionally neutral countries, submitted their candidacy to NATO after Ukraine's invasion of Russia in February 2022 .

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