The Turkish government has summoned this Friday the Danish ambassador to the country, Danny Annan, to condemn the protest called in front of the Turkish Embassy in Copenhagen, the Danish capital, in which the far-right Rasmus Paludan is scheduled to burn a copy of the Koran, as he did last weekend at a similar event in Sweden.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry has indicated that «the Danish ambassador has been summoned after the authorities have authorized the protest next to the Embassy, where attacks against our holy book, the Koran, are planned».
In this regard, the Turkish authorities have described the call as a «provocative action» and pointed out that it constitutes a «hate crime», as reported by the Anatolia news agency. «This attitude on the part of Denmark is unacceptable,» they have asserted before stressing that they expect Copenhagen to prevent the holding of the demonstration, scheduled for this Friday.
Paludan indicated on Thursday in a message spread through his Instagram account that he plans to burn a copy of the Koran in front of the Dortheavej mosque in Copenhagen. Thus, he has defined himself as a «Christian in a Christian country» and pointed out that he will carry a copy of the Koran and a match.
Over the weekend, Paludan burned another copy outside the Turkish embassy in Stockholm, prompting international condemnation. The act was followed by similar incidents by politicians as Edwin Wagensveld, who leads the far-right movement Patriots Europeans Against the Islamization of the West (PEGIDA), ripped out pages of the Koran and set them on fire.
The protests in Sweden are part of Turkey’s refusal to facilitate Stockholm’s accession to NATO on the grounds that the country is not meeting the requirements agreed by the parties during the June 2022 NATO summit in Madrid.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
