Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD/ISTANBUL: Turkey summoned the Denish ambassador to condemn Copenhagen for allowing a far-right extremist to burn the holy Quran over Ankara’s refusal to let Finland and Sweden join NATO.
Rasmus Paludan, an anti-Islam activist Danish-Swedish dual national, first burnt a copy of the holy Quran in the Danish capital near a mosque and then a 2nd copy outside the Turkish embassy.
A decision by local police to allow Paludan to stage a similar protest in Stockholm prompted Turkey to postpone planned NATO accession talks with Finland and Sweden.
The French and US embassies in Ankara alerted their citizens against an increased risk of reprisal attacks.
The US embassy said, “In the wake of recent such incidents in Europe, the US government warned its citizens of possible retaliatory attacks by terrorists against places of worship in Turkey. Terrorists can attack with no or little warning, targeting places of Westerners frequent or worship.”
The French embassy told its citizens in Turkey via email to underline the US warnings and to be highly vigilant. A Turkish official in the diplomatic circle said the Danish ambassador was summoned to protest over the unacceptable attitude of his country towards actions by Paludan.
“We strongly condemn this decision to grant permission for this provocative act, which constitutes a hate crime,” the Turkish diplomatic source told reporters.
Danish FM confirms envoy summoned
Lars Lokke Rasmussen, Danish Foreign Minister, confirmed that the envoy had been summoned. He said Copenhagen enjoyed “good relations with Ankara, and this incident could not change that.”
He said, “Our task is to convey to Turkey the circumstances that exist in Denmark with our open democracy and make them understand that there is a distinction between Denmark as a country – our people as a whole – and individuals who hold a wide range of viewpoints,” the ambassador to Turkey said.
Paludan vowed to stage weekly actions involving the holy Quran until Turkey approved the membership of NATO for Sweden and Finland. Swedish leaders have also condemned the actions of Paludan but defended the acceptance of free speech in their country. Last year, Sweden and Finland broke with decades of military non-alignment and applied to join NATO in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
All 30 members must approve a request to join the alliance and NATO. Only Turkey and sister NATO member Hungary, have not yet approved the two applications through parliamentary votes. The two bids are anticipated to be approved by Hungary’s parliament next month.
