Türkiye expects Sweden and Finland to prove the power of their states and fulfill their commitments under the tripartite NATO deal, the country’s Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said on Monday.
"We want them to end the heinous, despicable attempts on their lands. If these are accomplished, we have no problem with them," Akar told reporters in Ankara amid renewed strain between his country and Sweden.
An incident in the Swedish capital on Saturday where a Danish anti-Islam activist Rasmus Paludan burned a copy of Islam’s holy book in front of the Turkish Embassy and delivered a hatred-filled speech with permission from Swedish authorities under police protection has brought tensions to the boiling point between Ankara and Stockholm.
Swedish officials’ allowing Paludan to carry out his blatantly anti-Islam and anti-Türkiye act spurred worldwide backlash and outrage in Türkiye, especially amid the Nordic country’s bid to join NATO, which is running the risk of hitting a dead-end following the turbulent weekend.
"It is unacceptable to overlook and stay silent, unguarded against every kind of ignominy and despicable attempt. If they keep it at this rate, Türkiye’s stance and attitude are plain and clear," Akar said Monday during a videoconference with military commanders.
Stockholm has been courting Ankara to secure a green light for its application since last year when it, alongside Finland, threw away its military nonalignment in the wake of the Russia-Ukraine war. Ankara, however, has been firm in its demands that its security concerns about the terrorists Sweden is harboring and tolerating should be addressed.
As per a tripartite memorandum, the sides inked in June last year, Stockholm has vowed to meet the said demands, including extraditing and increasing its crackdown on terrorist groups. For the previous month, however, public support in Sweden for the terrorist groups from their sympathizers has been raising the tensions between the two countries, which Ankara has repeatedly warned would jeopardize Stockholm’s NATO membership process.
A scandalous protest in Stockholm in mid-January in which an effigy of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was hanged from its feet in front of the city hall has particularly impaired negotiations, and Saturday’s Quran burning incident has accelerated tensions.
Akar repeated Ankara’s support of NATO’s open-door policy, that Türkiye was not the enemy of Sweden and Finland. "We don’t stand in the way of their NATO membership," he explained.
"Just as they want to cooperate with NATO to defend their countries, we want cooperation in our fight against terrorism. We want support," Akar reiterated.
Sweden and Finland want Türkiye’s support for the security of their own lands but they "refuse" Türkiye’s demands about cracking down on terrorism, Akar highlighted.
"We’re urging both countries to fulfill their promises to the memorandum as soon s possible. If they do, we have no problems with them," the minister said.
As President Erdoğan convenes the Cabinet this evening, Paludan’s hate crime, the demonstrations targeting Erdoğan, and separating the NATO applications of Sweden and Finland into two cases will be reportedly on the agenda.
Sweden’s hesitancy has pushed Ankara to exercise more caution and evaluating Stockholm’s case separately from Helsinki’s is aimed at expressing its sincerity in Türkiye’s support of NATO’s open-door policy, sources said.
However, Türkiye remains incensed about Saturday’s incident and Sweden’s bid to ascend to NATO seems more in peril than ever as the country has proven repeatedly that it will not be joining NATO any time soon.