Sweden braces for anti-Turkey demos amid NATO bid – KXAN Austin
STOCKHOLM (AP) — Sweden is bracing for demonstrations Saturday that could hamper its efforts to persuade Turkey to approve its NATO membership.
A far-right activist from Denmark has been given permission by the police to stage a protest outside the Turkish embassy in Stockholm, where he intends to burn the Koran, Islam’s holy book. At the same time, both pro-Turkish and pro-Kurdish groups are planning demonstrations in the Swedish capital.
Turkey has so far refused to accept bids from Sweden and Finland to join NATO, which must be signed by all member states. Turkey says that Sweden in particular needs to crack down on Kurdish and other groups that Ankara considers terrorists.
Sweden has assured Turkey that they will not allow any terrorist groups on Swedish soil. But pro-Kurdish and anti-NATO groups have complicated matters for the Swedish government by staging anti-Turkey demonstrations that have angered the Turkish government, including a picture of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that was briefly hung outside Stockholm City Hall last the week.
Tensions could rise further on Saturday when anti-Islam activist Rasmus Paludan plans to burn a Koran outside the Turkish embassy. Paludan, who also holds Swedish citizenship, has staged similar protests in the past in both Denmark and Sweden, some of which have sparked violent counter-demonstrations.
Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billström told the TT news agency on Friday that Sweden respects freedom of expression. He would not speculate on how Paludan’s protest, which has been approved by police, would affect Sweden’s NATO bid, while noting that “anything that prolongs the process unnecessarily is of course something we take very seriously.”
A group calling itself the Swedish Solidarity Committee for Rojava, which claimed it was behind the image, is also planning a demonstration against Erdogan and Sweden’s NATO membership on Saturday, TT reported. Meanwhile, pro-Turkey activists are expected to gather for a separate demonstration near the Turkish embassy.
Sweden and Finland left decades of non-alignment and applied to join NATO after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Turkey and Hungary are the only NATO countries that have not yet approved their accession.