Monitoring Desk
ANKARA: Ankara on Saturday condemned the Sweden permitting an extremist to burn a copy of the Holy Qur’an in Stockholm and termed it modern barbarism. In a tweet, Turkish presidential spokesperson Ibrahim Kalin strongly condemned the demonstration and calling it a hate crime.
He tweeted, “To allow this act despite all our warnings is to encourage Islamophobia and hate crimes.
He further said that the attack on sacred values is not freedom but barbarism. The Swedish authorities allowed extremist, Rasmus Paludan to hold a demonstration on Saturday near Turkish embassy in Stockholm, arousing the fury of Turkey. Ankara had canceled a trip from Sweden, after the protest in Stockholm.
Ankara
Turkish Minister for Defense Hulusi Akar said dialogues with Swedish Defense Minister were called off as they had “lost importance and meaning”. The trip was intended to remove Ankara’s objection to Stockholm’s Nato bid.
Ankara has blocked Stockholm’s Nato bid since May in an attempt to get Sweden to fulfill several demands, Arab media reported.
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Swedish Defense Minister also confirmed that his trip was cancelled. He tweeted that ties with Turkey are very significant to his country. Turkey summoned the Swedish envoy over the protests for the second time in recent days.
