The Foreign Ministry warns Finns in Turkey to exercise greater caution | News
Sweden, Denmark and Norway issued similar warnings on Saturday.
Finland has warned its citizens in Turkey to avoid crowded areas and demonstrations. On Saturday night, the Finnish Foreign Ministry sent text messages to Finns in Turkey who had submitted a travel declaration urging them to avoid crowds, along with other precautionary advice.
Sweden, Denmark and Norway issued similar warnings on Saturday. Sweden said demonstrations were expected near its embassy in Ankara and its consulate in Istanbul.
The Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs has not yet changed its general travel advice for Turkey, which was last updated in early December.
The advice urges Finns traveling to the country to take special care. It advises them to avoid all travel to Turkey’s border region with Syria and to avoid unnecessary travel to eastern Turkey near the border with Iran and Iraq.
“The security situation in the country can deteriorate rapidly. Turkey’s military operation in northeastern Syria continues and Turkey has continued its anti-terrorist operations in northern Iraq,” the ministry says on its website.
Turkey warns citizens of Europe
The Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs has also updated its own travel bulletin for Turkish citizens abroad.
It warned that “in some European countries, increasing anti-Islam, xenophobia, racism and propagandist demonstrations against our country by groups with links to terrorist organizations have been observed.”
According to the Turkish Foreign Ministry, Turks in these countries should be on guard, avoid demonstrations and remain calm if attacked.
Turkey has expressed outrage that Sweden allowed a Danish far-right politician to hold a Koran-burning demonstration in front of the Turkish embassy in Stockholm last weekend. Swedish media have reported that the event was paid for by a former contributor to the Kremlin-backed channel RT who also works for the nationalist Sweden Democrats.
Because of the incident, the President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Sweden should not expect Ankara to support the country’s NATO membership. Turkey indefinitely suspended the formal negotiations on Finland’s and Sweden’s bid for membership in NATO.
On Saturday, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto (Green) told Yle that he has maintained close contacts with Turkey, even though tripartite negotiations are on hold.