NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg criticized the position of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who earlier threatened to block Sweden’s membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization after an extremist desecrated the Koran at a demonstration in Stockholm on Saturday.
In an interview he gave to the German newspaper Die Welt, Stoltenberg emphasized that “freedom of expression is a valuable commodity in Sweden and in all other NATO member countries. For this reason, misconduct is not automatically considered illegal.”
On Saturday afternoon, Swedish far-right Rasmus Palundan burned a copy of the Quran during a demonstration in Stockholm to protest Ankara’s obstruction to Sweden’s accession to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
“The Swedish government condemned (this protest) very clearly,” Mr. Stoltenberg recalled in an interview with Die Welt.
Earlier on Monday, Erdogan reacted sharply, signaling that Stockholm could no longer count on Ankara’s “support” after this episode.
For his part, Stoltenberg emphasized that he was “categorically against this kind of insults” and, therefore, “the kind of behavior that we saw on the streets of Stockholm.”
Although Sweden and Turkey signed a “memorandum of understanding” at the end of June, Ankara believes that its demands have not been met, mainly regarding the extradition of individuals accused by the Turkish authorities of “terrorism” or participation in a failed coup to overthrow Mr. Erdogan in 2016.
However, Mr. Stoltenberg believes that Turkey has so far been fully cooperative in consultations on Sweden and Finland’s accession to NATO, noting that the process should not crash at the last stage. “I am in close contact with Finland and Sweden and, of course, with our ally Turkey,” he added.
Noting that 28 of NATO’s 30 countries have already ratified the protocol on accession of Sweden and Finland to the North Atlantic Alliance, Mr. Stoltenberg said: “I ask the other allies – Hungary and Turkey – to speed up the procedures in their parliaments. “.
Source: RES-IPE
Source: Kathimerini
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