That is what Turkey’s powerful President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says in an official statement from Istanbul. The burning of the Koran outside Turkey’s embassy in Stockholm on Saturday is now having major political consequences and is causing headaches for both the Swedish government and NATO. The Danish-Swedish right-wing radical politician Rasmus Paludan was behind the Koran burning. This led to major protests both in Sweden and in Turkey. Outside the Swedish consulate in Istanbul, angry protesters set fire to a Swedish flag. The Turkish government called the Koran burning a racist hate crime. Swedish politicians condemned the Koran burning, but it doesn’t seem to have helped. From Turkey’s side, it is difficult to understand that the Swedish police could allow the burning of the Koran to take place. Turkey has previously canceled the planned visit by Sweden’s foreign minister. Has the NATO plans ready At a defense conference in Sälen a short time ago, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson presented large-scale plans for what Sweden will contribute to NATO. Swedish Jas 39 Gripen fighters will patrol the Baltic countries and the Swedish army will offer soldiers to the countries in the east. After decades of Swedish neutrality, the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine has turned Swedish security policy on its head. Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has also been clear that he wants both Sweden and Finland in the alliance. With Erdogan’s latest move makes things more complicated, not to mention a crisis for Sweden. Demand extradition Sweden and Turkey have an agreement on the table that they agreed on this summer, but Turkey has hesitated to sign. Turkey believes Sweden has largely been a haven for what it believes are Kurdish terrorists and has sent Sweden a long list of people it wants extradited. This applies, among other things, to former members of the Kurdish resistance movement PKK who want a free Kurdistan, which is completely out of the question for Turkey. The PKK is considered a terrorist organization in Turkey. Turkey wants to extradite people who were involved in the coup attempt in 2016. Turkish election campaign Both NATO and the international community are used to Turkey using its strategic location as a bargaining chip to highlight its interests. And several analysts have pointed out that Turkey is not going to approve a Swedish membership in Nato ahead of the Turkish elections on 14 May. The reason is that Erdogan needs to show strength internationally to get the support he needs.
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Erdogan says no to Sweden – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
