Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday that the Turkish parliament will ratify Sweden’s accession to NATO “as soon as possible”, but not before October next year.
“There are two-month parliamentary vacations and there are many international agreements to be examined, many legislative proposals to be discussed in order of importance,” the Turkish head of state stressed in statements on the sidelines of the NATO summit to be held in Vilnius this Wednesday. ended up. in Lithuania.
“But we intend to end the process as soon as possible,” Erdogan assured.
He continued: “When parliament opens its session, I believe the president will agree to give priority to this agreement over other international agreements”.
On Monday, Erdogan ended a 14-month blockade by lifting his veto against Sweden’s entry into NATO.
However, the Turkish head of state warned Stockholm against further attacks on the Koran, the holy book of Islam.
“We hope that Sweden will not tolerate any more attacks on the Quran that offend more than two billion Muslims in the world,” he said.
Twice in recent months, most recently in late June, pages from the Quran have been burned during public demonstrations in Sweden, actions Erdogan described as “terrorist” and “barbaric”.
Despite the fact that the burning of the Koran has been condemned by Swedish diplomacy, the Stockholm government reminded, namely with regard to the latest protest, that it was allowed in accordance with the right to freedom of expression.
The Muslim world protested vehemently in response to the burning of the Quran, with several countries summoning Swedish ambassadors to be present in their respective capitals, as was the case with Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates.
Source: DN
