Following weeks of deteriorating relations including the hanging of an Erdoğan effigy at a PKK-affiliated demonstration in Stockholm, the burning of a Quran outside the Turkish embassy in Sweden, followed by the retaliatory burning of the Swedish flag outside Sweden’s Istanbul consulate, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced on Monday night (January 23) in a speech after a cabinet meeting that Turkey would not support Sweden’s NATO accession bid.
“If the Swedish government is truly concerned about rights and freedom, they must first show respect to the Turkish Republic and our Islamic religion. If they are unable to show us respect then I am sorry, but they will not see any support from us for their NATO bid.”
Jokingly suggesting that Sweden’s far-right extremists and terror group members should take charge of the country’s defense, President Erdoğan continued:
“If they really love terror group members and enemies of Islam this much, then we recommend that they assign their defense needs over to these individuals as well.”
Last Friday’s (January 20) Quran burning incident in Stockholm was carried out by far-right Danish-Swedish extremist Rasmus Paludan, leader of the Stram Kurs (Straight Course) party. Despite condemnation by some Swedish officials who scolded Paludan’s Islamophobic act, the demonstration was allowed to proceed under police presence, in line with the country’s freedom of expression laws.
Turkey had previously demanded that both Sweden and Finland stop harboring alleged militant groups classified as terrorists by the Turkish state in order to be considered for NATO membership. Just weeks ago, President Erdoğan demanded the countries extradite a total of 130 alleged terrorist group members in order for their accession to proceed. Both countries host considerable Kurdish immigrant communities, some of whom are accused of ties to militant groups such as the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) and People’s Defense Units (YPG). The two Nordic countries broke from long-standing military neutrality stances last spring when they applied to join NATO, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Turkey and Hungary are the two remaining NATO members who have failed to ratify Sweden and Finland’s NATO applications, which have been pending since last summer. The issue has gained prominence of late as relations have reached new lows, and was discussed on a recent visit to Washington, D.C. by Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu and his American counterpart Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
