Turkey cancels Swedish minister's visit after protest against Ankara allowed
"Swedish Defense Minister Pål Jonson's visit to Turkey on January 27 has lost its significance and meaning, so we have canceled the visit," Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said.
REUTERS/File Photo
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Turkey announced on Saturday January 21 that it had canceled a planned visit by the Swedish Minister of Defense, after the authorization granted to hold a demonstration against Turkey in Stockholm.
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"
Swedish Defense Minister Pål Jonson's visit to Turkey on January 27 has lost its significance and meaning, so we have canceled the visit
," Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said.
The purpose of this visit was to try to remove
Ankara's objections to Sweden's entry into NATO
.
The authorization given to a Swedish-Danish right-wing extremist, Rasmus Paludan, to demonstrate on Saturday around 12 p.m. UT in front of the Turkish embassy in the Swedish capital aroused the anger of Ankara.
Rasmus Paludan expressed his intention to "
burn the Koran
" in front of the legation.
A demonstration, pro-Turkish this time, is planned at the same time near the embassy.
On Saturday, Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin condemned the planned protest, calling it an "
obvious hate crime
".
“
To allow this action despite all our warnings is to encourage hate crimes and Islamophobia
,” he tweeted.
Stockholm'de Kur'an-ı Kerim'in yakılması açık bir nefret ve insanlık suçudur.
Bunu şiddetle lanetliyoruz.
Tüm uyarılarımıza rağmen bu eyleme izin verilmesi, nefret suçlarının ve İslam düşmanlığının teşvik edilmesidir.
Kutsal değerlere saldırı özgürlük değil modern barbarlıktır.
— İbrahim Kalın (@ikalin1) January 21, 2023
A joint decision
The Swedish Minister of Defense for his part affirmed that the decision to “
postpone
” his visit to Turkey had been taken together with his Turkish counterpart on Friday during a meeting on Ukraine in Ramstein in Germany.
"
Relations with Turkey are very important to Sweden and we look forward to continuing the dialogue
," Pål Jonson tweeted.
Our relations with Türkiye are very important to Sweden, and we look forward to continuing the dialogue on common security and defense issues at a later date.
(2/2)
— Pål Jonson (@PlJonson) January 21, 2023
On Friday, Turkey had summoned the Swedish ambassador to Ankara to "
condemn this provocative action which clearly constitutes a hate crime, in the strongest terms
", according to a diplomatic source.
It was the second time in a few days that the Swedish representative in Ankara was summoned by the Foreign Ministry, after the release last week of a video showing a hanged mannequin, identified as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
This staging was carried out by a group close to the Rojava Committee, support for the Kurds of Syria.
A pro-Kurdish demonstration, in which this committee participates, is also planned in Stockholm this Saturday around 1 p.m. (UTC), against Swedish membership of NATO and Turkish President Erdogan.
Turkey has been blocking Sweden's - and Finland's - entry into NATO since May, accusing them of harboring Kurdish activists and sympathizers whom it calls "
terrorists
", in particular those of the Kurdistan Workers' Party ( PKK) and its allies in northern Syria and Iraq.
► To read also:
In the northeast of Syria, the Kurds are worried about the consequences of the Turkish attacks
For Ankara, any possible progress depends on Swedish moves to extradite people accused by Turkey of terrorism or of taking part in the
2016 coup attempt
against Mr Erdogan.
(with AFP)
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