Turkey is warning its citizens who want to go abroad about religious intolerance in the European Union and racism in the United States, a day after Western countries warned their citizens about the risk of attacks on Turkish soil.

The United States, France, Germany and Italy have urged people to avoid crowds in Turkey and tourist spots after copies of the Koran were burned in Sweden and Denmark in anti-Islam demonstrations.

Over the weekend, the Foreign Ministry in Ankara warned Turkish citizens in a travel advisory that there was a “dangerous level of religious intolerance and hatred” in Europe.

Turkish diplomacy also assured in another statement that “verbal and physical attacks by foreigners and racist acts have taken place in the United States recently.”

NATO is at the center of tension

This tension has intensified since May in the context of Turkey’s blocking of NATO expansion in Sweden and Finland. Ankara is asking Stockholm to extradite Kurdish refugees it considers terrorists.

Turkey and Hungary are the only NATO member states that have not ratified the accession of Sweden and Finland to the North Atlantic Alliance in their parliaments.

Hungary is due to complete ratification in February.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who wants to regain support among his electoral base ahead of Turkey’s presidential election scheduled for mid-May, has warned Sweden to stop counting on his “support” to join NATO.

Ankara’s negotiations with the two Scandinavian countries have been officially terminated. (Source: News.ro)