Turkey canceled next week’s visit by Swedish Defense Minister Pal Jonson as tension flared over permission given by Stockholm for a public burning of Islam’s holy book Quran.
It was just the latest incident between the countries as Turkey holds out on ratifying Sweden’s bid for inclusion into NATO.
“Sweden should have done what was necessary against such attempts. At this point, Jonson’s visit has no meaning or importance, so we canceled it,” state-run Anadolu Agency cited Defense Minister Hulusi Akar as saying.
Jonson, on Twitter, called the canceled trip a postponement.
“I had a meeting with my Turkish colleague Hulusi Akar yesterday at the American air base in Ramstein, Germany. We then agreed to postpone the planned meeting in Ankara,” he said.
“Relations with Turkey are very important to Sweden and we look forward to continuing the dialogue on common defense and security related issues at some point in the future.”
Rasmus Paludan, a Danish far-right activist, plans to burn a copy of the Quran outside the Turkish embassy in central Stockholm on Saturday. Pro-Turkish groups have said they will be staging a counter-protest.
Paludan, 41, who also has Swedish citizenship, has made a name for himself through a number of provocative Quran burnings, which last year led to protests and riots in Swedish suburbs where many residents are Muslim.
Turkey late Friday summoned Sweden’s ambassador over Paludan’s plan. It was the second time in a week that Staffan Herrstrom had been called in; he was earlier summoned after protesters in Stockholm affiliated with Kurdish movements displayed an effigy of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan upside down.
An agreement reached at NATO’s summit in Madrid in June allowed Sweden and Finland’s bids to join the alliance to move ahead. But Turkey refused to ratify the bids and its position has changed little since then.
Turkey expects Sweden to tackle support for the terrorist group PKK among a Kurdish population of about 100,000, and to extradite suspects before ratifying the country’s bid for joining NATO.
