Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan condemned Sweden today for giving permission for a rally in which protesters burned a copy of the Qur'an in Stockholm on Wednesday, saying Turkey would never bow to a policy of threats.
“We will eventually teach the arrogant Westerners that insulting Muslims is not freedom of thought,” the Turkish president said in televised remarks. “We will show our reaction in the strongest possible terms until a determined victory against terrorist organisations and Islamophobia is achieved.”
An Iraqi man, who describes himself as a liberal atheist, protested outside the main mosque of the Swedish capital after police granted a permit, which coincided with the start of the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha.
At the same time, Erdoğan’s tough talk comes one week before the top diplomats of Turkey and Sweden are due to meet in Brussels to discuss the Scandinavian country's NATO membership bid.
Turkey and fellow NATO member Hungary are holding up ratification of the application, which has been approved by all the other members of the US-led defence alliance.
Western officials had hoped to formally welcome Sweden into the bloc by the time a NATO summit is held in Lithuania on July 11-12, but this is looking increasingly unlikely.
In its written decision granting a permit for the protest, Stockholm police said the security risks associated with the burning “were not of a nature that could justify, under current laws, a decision to reject the request.”
Erdoğan, who extended his two-decade rule until 2028 in a tough election last month, said Swedish officials bore full responsibility for the incident.
“Those who commit this crime as well as those who allow it under the guise of freedom of opinion, those who tolerate this despicable act will not be able to achieve their ambitions,” he said.
Sweden must also stop protests by supporters of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Stockholm to get the green light on its NATO membership bid, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has told NATO’s Secretary-General.
Erdoğan told Jen Stoltenberg in a phone call on Sunday that Turkey had a constructive attitude, but Sweden’s change of “terrorism” laws to meet demands from Ankara was “meaningless” while PKK supporters continued to hold protests in the country, the Turkish presidency said in a statement.
Finland joined NATO in April but Turkey continues to block Sweden’s membership. Last week, Erdogan said it should not expect a green light from Ankara at the Vilnius summit unless it prevents “anti-Turkey” protests.
Ankara says Sweden harbours members of “terrorist” groups in the country, in particular belonging to the PKK, which has been designated a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the European Union and the United States.
Sweden recently introduced a new law to make it harder to finance or support “terrorist groups”, which Ankara said was not convincing enough.
Swedish foreign minister Tobias Billstrom on Wednesday said Turkey’s parliament should begin ratifying Sweden’s bid because Stockholm has met its obligations under a deal with Ankara.
Sweden and Finland both reversed decades of military non-alignment last year and applied to join NATO following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
