ISTANBUL (AFP) – Turkey on Saturday called off a visit by Sweden’s defence minister over a planned demonstration and desecration of Muslims’ holy book the Qur’an by a right-wing extremist in Stockholm.
Turkey has been angered by permission obtained by Rasmus Paludan, a Swedish-Danish politician whose anti-Islamist actions sparked riots across Sweden last year, to stage a protest in front of its embassy in the Swedish capital.
A day after summoning the Swedish ambassador over the issue, Ankara said it was cancelling a visit by Sweden’s defence chief that was aimed at overcoming Turkey’s objections to Sweden’s bid to join the NATO military alliance.
“At this point, Swedish Defence Minister Pal Jonson’s visit to Turkey on January 27 has lost its significance and meaning, so we cancelled the visit,” Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar said.
Jonson also confirmed the decision to postpone the visit, which he said was made together with Akar at the U.S. military base in Ramstein, Germany, on Friday.
“Our relations with Turkey are very important to Sweden, and we look forward to continuing the dialogue on common security and defence issues at a later date,” he tweeted.
Paludan has expressed his intention to “burn the Qur’an”, Islam’s holy book, during his protest on Saturday.
In April last year, Paludan’s announcement of a Qur’an burning “tour” for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan sparked riots across Sweden.
Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu hoped that Swedish authorities would not allow the protest.
“It’s a racist action, it’s not about freedom of expression,” he said.
Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin on Saturday condemned the planned protest, slamming it as a “clear crime of hatred”.
“Allowing this action despite all our warnings is encouraging hate crimes and Islamophobia,” he tweeted.
“The attack on sacred values is not freedom but modern barbarism.”
Turkey had on Friday summoned Sweden’s ambassador to “condemn this provocative action which is clearly a hate crime -- in strongest terms,” a diplomatic source said.
Foreign ministry officials told the ambassador that Sweden’s permission for the protest in the pretext of defending democratic values was “unacceptable”, the source added.