Ankara cancels Swedish defence chief visit over Quran burning permission

Türkiye’s Defence Minister Hulusi Akar says it’s unacceptable to stay silent over the incident, including it’s essential to take motion and take precautions.

Pal Jonson was scheduled to visit Türkiye on January 27. — Pal Jonson was scheduled to go to Türkiye on January 27.
(AA Archive)

Ankara has cancelled Swedish Defence Minister Pal Jonson’s upcoming go to to Türkiye in response to Sweden’s permission for a deliberate burning of the Quran, Islam’s holy e-book, close to the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm.

“We regretfully witnessed that no measures were taken as a result of these vile and heinous acts against Türkiye and our President (Recep Tayyip Erdogan). Therefore, at this point, the visit of Swedish Defence Minister Jonson to Türkiye on January 27 has become meaningless. So we cancelled the visit,” Turkish National Defence Minister Hulusi Akar instructed reporters on Friday after a NATO assembly at Ramstein air base in Germany.

The transfer introduced by Akar got here after Rasmus Paludan, chief of the Danish far-right occasion Stram Kurs (Hard Line), was given permission to burn the Quran on Saturday outdoors the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm.

Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom stated he was involved that the demonstration dangers additional delaying Türkiye’s ratification of Sweden’s NATO bid.

However, he added that it will be “very inappropriate” for him to name for an individual to not be allowed to hold out an illustration.

Crime towards humanity

Akar stated it was unacceptable to stay silent over the incident, including: “It was necessary to take action and take precautions.”

Stressing Türkiye’s help for NATO’s open door coverage, Akar added: “All we want is the fulfilment of the commitments in this memorandum. We expect Sweden and Finland to do their part, their homework.”

Türkiye’s presidential spokesperson Ibrahim Kalin additionally posted on Twitter that the burning of the Holy Quran in Stockholm is a “hate crime and a crime against humanity”.

“Allowing this action despite all our warnings encourages hate crimes and Islamophobia. The attack on sacred values is not freedom, but modern barbarism,” he added.