AP | | Posted by Lingamgunta Nirmitha Rao
Turkey’s president mentioned Monday Sweden shouldn’t count on help for NATO membership following weekend protests in Stockholm by an anti-Islam activist and pro-Kurdish teams.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan slammed Rasmus Paludan’s Quran-burning protest on Saturday, saying it was an insult to everybody, particularly to Muslims. He additionally criticized Swedish authorities for permitting the demonstration to happen exterior the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm.
Additionally Learn | Sweden’s NATO software hangs by thread after Quran-burning incident
Erdogan additionally criticized Sweden for pro-Kurdish protests the place demonstrators waved flags of assorted Kurdish teams, together with the Kurdistan Employees’ Occasion, or PKK, which has waged a decades-long insurgency towards Turkey. The PKK is taken into account a terrorist group in Turkey, the European Union and the USA, however its symbols aren’t banned in Sweden.
“So you’ll let terror organizations run wild after which count on our help for stepping into NATO. That’s not taking place,” Erdogan mentioned, referring to Sweden and Finland’s accession bids for the army alliance. He mentioned if Sweden received’t present respect to Turkey or Muslims, then “they received’t see any help from us on the NATO problem.”
Turkey has been holding up the Nordic nations’ historic NATO bids.