On Tuesday, the Swedish prime minister called for an easing of tensions over the Koran burning by a far-right militant in Stockholm before returning to dialogue with Turkey to circumvent its veto on NATO membership.
Ankara stepped up its refusal to allow Sweden to join the Atlantic Alliance after a symbolic execution by a pro-Kurdish group in Stockholm of a doll depicting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the burning of the Quran, which also sparked protests in several Muslim countries.
“The most important thing now is to clarify that it was not Sweden as a country that executed a doll symbolizing a foreign leader, or burned books to insult, and the second is to soften, cool the situation,” he said. on Tuesday Ulf Kristersson at a press conference.
Kristersson said that in recent days he has been in contact with UN Secretary General António Guterres, the President of Finland, also a NATO candidate, prime ministers and politicians from Islamic countries and Muslim organizations.
“I have made it clear in my contacts that freedom of speech is a fundamental part of Swedish democracy. But what is legal is not always appropriate,” he stressed.
The head of the Swedish government also accused “useful fools” of promoting controversial actions in Sweden, driven by forces that want “evil” for the Scandinavian country.
While he believes things won’t get worse for now, “small things can rekindle that fire,” he added.
Ulf Kristersson also expressed his wish that Sweden’s accession to NATO be “as short as possible”.
In the face of insinuations that Finland might seek to join the Alliance without a neighboring country, the minister stressed that Helsinki’s position was “very clear”, although he mentioned that he understood that it might feel “disappointed”.
Finnish Head of State Sauli Niinistö assured on Monday that Helsinki retains its intention to join NATO at the same time as Sweden.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine forced Sweden and Finland to end their military non-alignment in 2022 and apply for NATO membership.
Since May, Ankara has been blocking NATO expansion into that country, as well as Finland, by demanding that Stockholm extradite Kurdish refugees, whom Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government classifies as “terrorists.”
The accession of the two Scandinavian countries requires the unanimity of the current 30 member states of the Atlantic Alliance.
The incidents in European cities were condemned by the governments concerned and other Western countries, but this was not enough to stop Turkey’s outrage.
The Turkish President called the acts of burning copies of the Koran “treason, vulgarity and dishonor” and said that Sweden cannot count on his country’s approval to join NATO.
Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates also expressed their condemnation of such acts.