STOCKHOLM (AP) \u2014 Turkey on Saturday canceled a\u00a0planned visit by Sweden\u2019s defense minister\u00a0in response to\u00a0anti-Turkish protests\u00a0that increased\u00a0tension between the two countries\u00a0as Sweden seeks Turkey\u2019s approval to join NATO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A far-right activist from Denmark received permission from police to stage a protest outside the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm where he burned the Quran, Islam\u2019s holy book. A separate pro-Kurdish demonstration was held later Saturday in the Swedish capital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said the scheduled Jan. 27 visit by his Swedish counterpart P\u00e5l Jonson no longer held \u201cany importance or point,\u201d because Sweden continued to allow \u201cdisgusting\u201d demonstrations against Turkey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jonson tweeted that he had met Akar on Friday in Ramstein, Germany, where they \u201cagreed to postpone\u201d the meeting in Ankara.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cRelations with Turkey are very important for Sweden and we look forward to continuing the dialogue on common security and defense issues at a later date,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The bid by historically nonaligned Sweden and Finland to join NATO\u00a0in the wake of\u00a0Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine\u00a0has been held up by Ankara, which has accused Sweden in particular of being soft on Kurdish militants and other groups that Turkey considers security threats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Swedish government\u2019s efforts to improve relations with Turkey have been\u00a0complicated by demonstrations\u00a0by pro-Kurdish activists, which have infuriated Turkey\u2019s government. On Saturday, anti-Islam activist Rasmus Paludan added to the tensions by staging a Quran-burning protest outside the Turkish Embassy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Surrounded by police, Paludan carried out his protest while making disparaging remarks about immigrants and Islam. About 100 people gathered nearby for a peaceful counterdemonstration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a separate protest later Saturday, a few hundred pro-Kurdish and anti-NATO activists marched through downtown Stockholm. Demonstrators waved flags of various Kurdish groups, including the Kurdistan Workers\u2019 Party, or PKK, which has waged a decades-long insurgency against Turkey. The PKK is considered a terrorist group in Turkey, the European Union and the United States, but its symbols aren\u2019t banned in Sweden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The protesters also held up flags with the face of imprisoned Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan and walked over a photo of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Swedish officials have stressed that freedom of expression is guaranteed by the Swedish Constitution and gives people extensive rights to express their views publicly, though incitement to violence or hate speech isn\u2019t allowed. Demonstrators must apply to police for a permit for a public gathering. Police can deny such permits only on exceptional grounds, such as risks to public safety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Turkish officials condemned the Quran-burning protest and Swedish authorities for allowing it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPermitting this anti-Islam act, which targets Muslims and insults our sacred values, under the guise of \u2018freedom of expression\u2019 is completely unacceptable. This is an outright hate crime,\u201d Turkey\u2019s Foreign Ministry said in a statement. In another statement, following the pro-Kurdish protest, Ankara said that Sweden was in \u201cclear violation\u201d of the\u00a0joint memorandum\u00a0signed between Turkey, Sweden and Finland in June by not preventing \u201cterror organization propaganda.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ibrahim Kalin, Erdogan\u2019s spokesman, called the Quran-burning a hateful crime against humanity, while Erdogan\u2019s nationalist ally, Devlet Bahceli, said parliament wouldn\u2019t ratify Sweden\u2019s NATO membership \u201cunder these conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSweden has a far-reaching freedom of expression, but it does not imply that the Swedish Government, or myself, support the opinions expressed,\u201d Foreign Minister Tobias Billstr\u00f6m tweeted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
About 100 people gathered outside the Swedish Consulate in Istanbul on Saturday night, where demonstrators burned a Swedish flag and shouted slogans like \u201chands raised against the Quran will be broken.\u201d A small group also gathered outside the Swedish Embassy in Ankara.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Earlier in January, an effigy of Erdogan was hung from a lamppost during a protest by Kurds. Turkey denounced a decision by a Swedish prosecutor not to investigate and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson called the protest an act of \u201csabotage\u201d against Sweden\u2019s bid to join NATO. Turkey summoned the Swedish ambassador earlier this week and canceled a visit by the speaker of the Swedish parliament in reaction to the incident.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All NATO members need to ratify in their parliaments the accession requests by Sweden and Finland, which were made after Russia\u2019s war on Ukraine prompted the Nordic countries to drop their longstanding policies of military nonalignment. While Turkey says it has no objection to NATO\u2019s growth,\u00a0it won\u2019t ratify the bids until its demands,\u00a0which include extraditions of alleged terror suspects, are met.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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