The leader of the Danish far-right Hard Deal party, Rasmus Paludan, who burned a Koran outside the Turkish embassy in Stockholm last Saturday, threatened President Tayyip Erdogan with new actions until Sweden joins NATO.
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The radical told the publication that the implementation of new extremist actions by him depends on “President Erdogan himself”, who “does not want to let Sweden into NATO.”
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According to Paludan, as soon as Ankara gives Stockholm the go-ahead to join the bloc, he “will never again burn the Koran in front of the Turkish embassy.”
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On Saturday, Paludan burned the Koran at the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm, having previously received permission from the Swedish authorities to hold the action. Erdogan said that after that, Sweden should not count on Ankara’s support for the application to join NATO.
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The burning of the Koran in Stockholm was condemned by the ministries of foreign affairs of the Arab countries of the Persian Gulf, including the foreign ministries of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. Gennady Askaldovich, special representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry for cooperation in the field of observance of the right to freedom of religion, said that Moscow condemns and rejects the burning of the Koran by extremists in Stockholm, calls for action against radicals.
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Finland and Sweden are in the process of ratifying applications to the North Atlantic Alliance, where 28 out of 30 countries have approved their membership, with the exception of Turkey and Hungary. On Tuesday, a diplomatic source told RIA Novosti that trilateral negotiations between Turkey, Sweden and Finland on NATO membership have been postponed indefinitely at the request of Ankara.
