Sweden is “on pause” regarding Turkey’s ratification process for its membership of NATO, Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billström admitted on Friday after the Islamophobic incidents in Stockholm.
However, Billström insisted, Sweden fulfilled all the conditions of the agreement between the two countries and Finland, which still wants to join, and as such, Stockholm believes there are no grounds for the Turkish parliament to allow a simultaneous integration of the two countries.
When asked whether a foreign power or an outside power could be involved in the burning of the Quran in front of the Turkish embassy in Stockholm, or in the appearance of an effigy of Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, hung from a streetlight in In the Swedish capital replied to Billström that the incidents are being investigated by Swedish authorities.
Several media commentators in Latvia and Sweden suggested that “a third power”, probably Russia, may have “encouraged” Swedish-Danish far-right Rasmus Paluda to continue burning the Koran, something he had never done before.
In a joint press conference with his Latvian counterpart, Edgars Rinkevics, the head of Swedish diplomacy stressed that neither the government nor he himself supports the burning of “sacred scriptures”, but that freedom of expression in Sweden allows such actions.
In turn, Rinkevics was confident that the accession of Sweden and Finland will be approved by the Turkish parliament, despite the impact of these actions on Turkish society in the middle of the country’s pre-election campaign.
“We were concerned before [da cimeira da NATO de julho de 2022 em Madrid], but an agreement was reached and implemented. There were provocations, but objectively the conditions were met”he claimed.
On January 12, Turkey summoned the Swedish ambassador to Ankara to express its displeasure after the appearance of an effigy of Erdogan near Stockholm City Hall.
Turkish officials have called the incident “terrorist propaganda” by supporters of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and other militant Kurdish groups, and continue to demand the extradition of dozens of these activists living in Sweden.
Turkish officials also underlined that this move contradicts the agreement signed by Turkey with Sweden and Finland, in which the two Nordic countries commit to suppress exiled Kurdish militants, at a time when they await Turkish approval to start the accession process. to perform the BORN. .
In November, the same ambassador was also summoned to the Turkish Foreign Ministry after images purportedly insulting Erdogan were projected on the facade of the Turkish embassy building in Stockholm.
Sweden and Finland abandoned their traditional policy of military non-alignment and applied to join the Atlantic Alliance in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Turkey, which is a member of NATO, has not yet confirmed the membership of the two Scandinavian countries, which would require unanimous approval from the organization’s current 30 member states.
Source: DN
