Turkey’s Defense Minister Hulusi Akar on Monday dismissed the idea that the country would «remain silent» in the face of the «anti-Turkish» protests that have taken place over the weekend in Stockholm, the capital of Sweden.
«It is not acceptable for us to remain silent in the face of such incidents,» Akar said, referring to the burning of a copy of the Koran in front of the Turkish Embassy in the country as part of a demonstration against Sweden’s NATO membership and the pressure exerted by the Turkish government.
Akar, who has again urged the Swedish authorities to «abide by the trilateral agreements» reached also with Finland to make way for the two countries’ NATO membership, has threatened to change his mind. «Then our position on their membership is obvious,» he has stated, according to reports in the daily ‘Hurriyet’.
In this regard, he has lambasted Stockholm for allowing far-right politician Rasmus Paludan to burn the Koran. Subsequently, the authorities have confirmed the suspension of the visit of the Swedish Minister of Defense, Pal Jonson, who was scheduled to go to Ankara on January 27 to discuss Sweden’s accession to the Alliance.
«Simply put, just as they seek cooperation with NATO on defense, we want cooperation on terrorism. They ask for support to defend and secure their countries but reject our demands to end terrorism,» he lamented before adding that Turkey «has always supported NATO’s open-door policy.» «We are not against their inclusion,» he has maintained.
In this regard, he has stressed that Ankara expects both countries to «put an end to all these actions» against Turkey «in accordance with the trilateral pact reached in June 2022» during the NATO summit held in Madrid.
Sweden and Finland decided to abandon their neutral positions after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and thus apply for NATO membership. Of the 30 NATO members, only Turkey and Hungary have not yet ratified their membership.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
