Turkey announced the cancellation of a scheduled visit by Swedish Defense Minister Pal Johnson to Ankara on January 27, due to what it described as Sweden's failure to confront the "provocations" of the PKK supporters, and its permission to organize a demonstration to burn a copy of the Noble Qur'an.
Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said - in statements to reporters after his participation in the meeting of countries supporting Ukraine at Ramstein Air Base in Germany on Friday - "At this stage, the visit of the Swedish Minister of Defense (...) lost its importance and meaning, so we canceled it."
Akar criticized what he called the provocations of the PKK supporters in Sweden against Turkey and its president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and the news that the Swedish police allowed demonstrations in front of the Turkish embassy in Stockholm to burn a copy of the Holy Quran.
"It is unacceptable that Sweden remains inactive and does nothing against these people," he added. "The necessary measures had to be taken."
The Foreign Ministry of #Turkey summons the ambassador of #Sweden and informs him of its condemnation in the strongest terms of allowing his country to burn a copy of the Qur’anhttps://t.co/YofNSEyN8g pic.twitter.com/sqYGT3P97Y
— ANADOLU AGENCY (AR) (@aa_arabic) January 20, 2023
The Turkish Minister of Defense stressed the need to implement the provisions of the tripartite memorandum signed in Madrid last June between Turkey, Sweden and Finland, indicating that "our only request is to fulfill the obligations contained in the memorandum, and we expect Sweden and Finland to fulfill their role and duties."
Sweden and Finland are seeking to ensure that Turkey ratifies their application to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which requires the approval of all its 30 member states.
Turkey asked the two countries to cooperate in several files before granting its approval to membership, especially the extradition of wanted persons from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and the Fethullah Gulen group, which Ankara accuses of masterminding the 2016 coup attempt.
And there was a setback in this path, after protesters in Stockholm hung a doll symbolizing the Turkish president recently, an incident that the Swedish government condemned and described as very serious, but Ankara considered that condemnation was not enough and demanded that measures be taken against such actions.