China News Service, January 22, comprehensive report, local time on January 21, Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, held a series of protests involving Turkey and Sweden's accession to NATO.
During this period, the leader of a far-right political party publicly burned the "Koran" near the Turkish embassy, which triggered strong condemnation from the Turkish side.
"We condemn in the strongest possible way the despicable attack on our holy book," Turkey's foreign ministry said, calling the burning of the book an "anti-Islamic act" and "totally unacceptable."
Arab countries including Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Kuwait also condemned the burning of the Koran, Reuters said.
Some 200 protesters reportedly rallied in front of the Swedish consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, in response to the burning of the Koran.
Someone at the rally burned a Swedish flag.
It is reported that two other demonstrations were held in Stockholm on the same day: one supported the Kurds and opposed Sweden's accession to NATO, and the other supported Turkey.
The local police stated that the three demonstrations all ended peacefully, and all of them had obtained permission from the police beforehand.
During a demonstration protesting Sweden's NATO membership and expressing support for the Kurds, someone spoke in front of a huge red banner that read "We are all PKK (Pursh Workers' Party)".
"We will continue to oppose Sweden's bid to join NATO," one of the organizers of the event told Reuters.
In fact, before the protests broke out on the 21st, Turkey summoned the Swedish ambassador, condemned the "provocative" protests, and expressed its hope to revoke the demonstration permit.
Affected by this, Turkey canceled the visit of Swedish Defense Minister Jonsson to Turkey.
And Sweden hopes to push Turkey to approve its application to join NATO.
Turkish Defense Minister Akar stated that "no action or no response to these (demonstrations) is unacceptable." We have canceled this visit."
Recently, there have been constant frictions between Sweden and Turkey, and relations have declined sharply.
A video on social media showed supporters of the PKK insulting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at an event held in Stockholm on the 11th.
At that time, the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs also summoned the Swedish ambassador to Turkey, and the speaker of the Turkish parliament canceled the visit of the speaker of the Swedish parliament.
Swedish Prime Minister Kristersson then condemned the Kurdish protests in central Stockholm, calling their actions a "sabotage" of Sweden's bid to join NATO.
Sweden and Finland applied to join NATO in May 2022, but were opposed by NATO member Turkey.
Turkey accuses the two countries of supporting groups that Turkey considers "terrorist organisations".
After several rounds of negotiations, the three countries of Turkey and Finland signed a memorandum, confirming that Turkey agreed to support Sweden and Finland to join NATO. Sweden and Finland will not support the PKK, the Syrian Kurdish armed "People's Protection Units" and the "Gulen Movement".
According to the regulations, NATO must have the "unanimous consent" of the 30 member states before it can admit new members.
However, Turkey has not yet ratified the protocol for the two countries to join NATO.