No support for Sweden's NATO bid over provocations: Erdoğan
Daily SabahJan 24, 2023
Speaking in televised remarks after a cabinet meeting on Monday, Turkey's Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan warned Sweden that it cannot expect his backing to join NATO after a Quran was burnt in Stockholm over the weekend.
This comes after protests gathering pro-Kurdish groups and anti-Islam activist Rasmus Paludan took place outside the Turkish Embassy in the Swedish capital, with the latter setting fire to a copy of the Islamic holy book and the former waving flags of Kurdish groups that Ankara considers terrorist organizations.
It would be unacceptable for Ankara to give Sweden the thumbs up to its NATO membership while Stockholm allows terrorist sympathizers to spout anti-Islam hate speech and blatantly carry out provocations against Turkey and Muslims. Turkey has already made its terms for supporting Swedish entry into the alliance clear, so the nation must decide whether joining the bloc in opposition to Russian aggression is more important than supporting terrorists and Islamophobes.
While the burning of a copy of the Quran is obviously a grossly disrespectful act against Islam, it is not illegal under Swedish law which values freedom of expression as a fundamental part of democracy. If Turkey bases its decision over Sweden's NATO bid on this disgusting but unrepresentative incident, it will be doing exactly what the minority responsible wanted and giving in to Islamophobic hate.
There's a 75% chance that Sweden will join NATO before 2024, according to the Metaculus prediction community.