The Turkish government has cancelled the upcoming visit of Turkish Defense Minister Pal Jonson to Turkey in protest against the burning of a copy of the Koran, the Muslim holy book, in front of the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm on Saturday.
«We condemn in the strongest possible terms the vile attack on our holy book, the Quran, in Sweden today, January 21, despite repeated warnings,» the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement carried by the ‘Daily Sabah’ newspaper.
This act is «a blatant hate crime». «Allowing this anti-Islamic act against Muslims is an insult to our most sacred values disguised as freedom of speech and is absolutely unacceptable,» added Ankara.
Turkey therefore calls on the Swedish authorities to take the necessary measures against those «responsible for this hate crime.» «This despicable act is yet another example of the alarming level of Islamophobia, racism and discrimination that Europe has reached.»
Ankara thus calls on all countries and international bodies to respond to this act «in solidarity against Islamophobia.»
Mr. Johnson was scheduled to travel to Turkey next week, a trip essential to close the diplomatic crisis caused by the hanging of a dummy of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in front of Stockholm’s City Hall.
This Saturday the leader of the Danish far-right Stram Kurs (Hard Line) party, Rasmus Paludan, burned a Koran in front of the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm.
On Friday and in anticipation of this widely publicized act Turkey summoned the Turkish ambassador to Ankara, Staffan Herrstrom, to urge the Swedish authorities to prevent it. It also warned that the acts of Kurdish groups called for this Saturday in Stockholm are a «clear violation» of the tripartite agreement of June by which Finland and Sweden agreed with Turkey its future membership in NATO.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
