PA | | Posted by Lingamgunta Nirmitha Rao
Turkey’s president said Monday that Sweden should not expect support for NATO membership following weekend protests in Stockholm by an anti-Islam activist and pro-Kurdish groups.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan criticized the protest against Rasmus Paludan’s Quran burning on Saturday, saying it was an insult to everyone, especially Muslims. He also criticized the Swedish authorities for allowing the demonstration to take place in front of the Turkish embassy in Stockholm.
Read also | Sweden’s NATO candidacy hangs by a thread after Koran burning incident
Erdogan also criticized Sweden for pro-Kurdish protests in which demonstrators waved flags of various Kurdish groups, including the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which has waged a decades-long insurgency against Turkey. The PKK is considered a terrorist group in Turkey, the European Union and the United States, but its symbols are not banned in Sweden.
“Then you will let the terrorist organizations run wild and then you will wait for our support to enter NATO. That’s not going to happen,” Erdogan said, referring to Sweden’s and Finland’s offers to join the military alliance. He said that if Sweden does not show respect for Turkey or the Muslims, then “they will not see any support from us on the NATO issue.”
Turkey has been holding up historic NATO offers from the Nordic nations.
