ISTANBUL: Turkiye on Saturday announced to cancel off a visit by Sweden Defence Minister Pal Jonson over a prearranged anti-Turkiye protest in Stockholm.
Turkiye cancels visit
Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said that Jonson’s visit to Turkiye on January 27 had lost its meaning as they have cancelled the upcoming visit.
The Swedish defence minister’s visit was aimed at overcoming Ankara’s objections to Sweden’s attempt to join the NATO military alliance.
Turkiye had been angered by permission given to a right-wing extremist to stage a demonstration on Saturday in front of the Turkish embassy in Stockholm.
Rasmus Paludan, a Danish-Swedish politician whose anti-Islamist diatribes sparked riots across Sweden last year, announced his intention to “burn the holy Qur’an” during his protest on Saturday.
Turkiye earlier summoned Sweden’s ambassador to the country to “condemn this provocative action which was a hate crime in strongest terms, Arab News said.
It was the second time Sweden’s ambassador to Turkiye was summoned in more than a week.
Last week, he was summoned to over a video clip posted by a Kurdish group in Stockholm that depicted Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan swinging by his legs from a rope.
Sweden and neighbouring Finland needed Turkiye’s consent to join the NATO.
Both Turkiye and Sweden dropped decades of military non-alignment last year after they applied to join NATO in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Turkiye says any progress depended on Sweden’s steps to deport people it accuses of terrorism or having played a part in the 2016 coup attempt against Erdogan.
