San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Turkey-Sweden tensions spiral amid protests
Turkey on Saturday canceled a planned visit by Sweden’s defense minister in response to anti-Turkish protests that increased tension between the two countries as Sweden seeks Turkey’s approval to join NATO.
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’s holy book. A separate pro-Kurdish demonstration took place later Saturday in the Swedish capital.
Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said the scheduled Jan. 27 visit by his Swedish counterpart Pål Jonson no longer held “any importance or point,” because Sweden continued to allow “disgusting” demonstrations against Turkey.
The bid by historically nonaligned Sweden and Finland to join NATO in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has 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.
The Swedish government’s efforts to improve relations with Turkey have been complicated by demonstrations by proKurdish activists, which have infuriated Turkey’s government.
On Saturday, anti-Islam activist Rasmus Paludan added to the tensions by staging the Quran-burning protest.
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’t allowed.
All NATO members need to ratify in their parliaments Sweden and Finland’s accession requests, made after Russia’s war on Ukraine prompted the Nordic countries to drop their longstanding policies of military nonalignment.
While Turkey says it has no objection to NATO’s growth, it won’t ratify the bids until its demands, which include extraditions of alleged terror suspects, are met.