Turkey condemns the “modern barbarism” against the Swedish Koran-burning protest
The UAE said it was against “any practice aimed at destabilizing security and stability contrary to human and moral values and principles”.
The Gulf Cooperation Council also condemned the protest.
Sweden’s foreign minister Tobias Billström said: “Islamophobic provocations are terrible”.
“Sweden has far-reaching freedom of expression, but that does not mean that the Swedish government, or I, support the opinions expressed.”
Paludan’s protest was held under heavy police protection with around 100 people – including a large number of reporters – gathered near the Turkish embassy in Stockholm.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s top press aide, Fahrettin Altun, urged Sweden to “immediately act” against hate-filled provocations.
“The Swedish authorities must wake up to the reality of terrorist groups intent on preventing Sweden’s NATO membership by poisoning their relationship with us,” he tweeted.
A small pro-Turkey demonstration also took place on the other side of the embassy, while a pro-Kurdish demonstration called by, among others, the Rojava Committee took place in Stockholm and drew several hundred people.
Swedish police gave their permission for the demo after determining it fell under the country’s liberal free speech laws.
Devlet Bahceli, head of the nationalist MHP party, the junior partner in Erdogan’s governing coalition, vowed that “Sweden’s NATO membership will not be approved by parliament”.
A group of protesters set fire to a Swedish flag at a demonstration outside its consulate in Istanbul and called on Turkey to cut diplomatic ties with Stockholm, an AFP journalist reported.
Another group protested near the Swedish embassy in Ankara.
Turkey had already summoned Sweden’s ambassador on Friday to “condemn this provocative action which is clearly a hate crime – in the strongest terms,” a diplomatic source said.
As early as January 12, the ambassador had been summoned to answer for a video posted by the pro-Kurdish Rojava Committee in Sweden that depicted Erdogan swinging his legs from a rope.
A tweet from the group compared Erdogan to Italy’s fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, who was hanged upside down after his execution in the final days of World War II.
Both Sweden and its neighbor Finland hope to join NATO and shed decades of military non-alignment in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
But they need the consent of Turkey, a member of the alliance, to join.
Ankara says its approval is conditional on Swedish action to extradite people it accuses of terrorism or having played a role in the 2016 coup attempt against Erdogan.
Turkey says Sweden has not done enough to crack down on the Kurdish groups Ankara sees as “terrorists”.