The Turkish Foreign Ministry has summoned the Swedish Ambassador to Ankara, Staffan Herrstrom, in protest against demonstrations against the Turkish government held in front of the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm.
According to Turkish authorities, these protests included slogans in favor of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which Ankara considers a terrorist organization and whose persecution is one of Turkey’s demands for approval of Sweden and Finland’s membership in the Atlantic Alliance.
For the Turkish diplomatic portfolio, in addition to spreading propaganda in favor of this organization which it labels as terrorist, the demonstrators hurled insults and projected images against the Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Turkey has condemned this episode and demanded a thorough investigation into what happened, according to the Turkish news agency Anatolia. Ankara has called on the Swedish authorities to identify the participants of the demonstration and to take appropriate measures.
The entry of Sweden and Finland is pending ratification by Turkey and Hungary, the only NATO members that have not completed the procedure, which threatens to delay their entry into the military organization. The NATO General Secretariat has repeatedly defended the commitment of Stockholm and Helsinki to what was signed in the margins of the leaders’ summit in Madrid to address Turkey’s concerns to combat groups such as the PKK.
