Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey Mevlut Cavusoglu said today that Ankara expects decisive action from Sweden after the incident in Stockholm, in which the effigy of the president Tayyip Erdogan hung by their feet on a rope outside Stockholm City Hall, which increased diplomatic pressure on Sweden’s attempt to join NATO.

Mevlut Cavusoglu said that Sweden “cannot evade its obligations” by only condemning the incident.

“Supporters of a terrorist organization are trying to prevent Sweden from joining NATO. “Sweden will either bow to them or keep its promises,” he said.

NEW: Dummy of Turkish President Erdogan executed in Stockholm, Swedenpic.twitter.com/lsLDuNQl8a

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The head of Turkish diplomacy stressed that his country will continue negotiations with Sweden and its co-candidate Finland on their application for NATO membership, and they will soon have a meeting, most likely in Brussels.

“Sabotage” against the request to join NATO

Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billström said relations with Turkey were important and condemned the incident as shameless. “The government understands that Turkey is reacting,” he said in a statement. “The implementation of the memorandum continues.”

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristerson told TV4 today that the action is “extremely serious” and that he considers it a sabotage against his country’s NATO membership bid. Police said they did not know about the incident until it was over.

Ankara has said Sweden needs to take a clearer stance on what Turkey considers terrorists, mostly Kurdish fighters, and the group it accuses of attempting a coup in 2016.

Several Kurds live in exile in Sweden.

Turkish news agency Anadolu reported that an investigation into the incident was launched after Erdogan’s lawyer filed a legal request. “An application has been submitted to the Ankara Prosecutor’s Office to open a criminal case with a demand to investigate the criminals,” Erdogan’s lawyer Hussein Aydin tweeted.

^{Source: APE-MEB, Reuters}