Hungary lashes out at Sweden’s “stupidity” on NATO quarrels with Türkiye
Hungary criticized Sweden for “stupidity” for allowing a provocateur to burn the Holy Quran in front of Turkey’s embassy in Stockholm, noting that the former should act differently if it wants Ankara’s support for its NATO bid.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said that allowing the provocation under the protection of “freedom of expression” amounts to “stupidity”.
Szijjarto attended a joint press conference with his Turkish counterpart, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu in Budapest on Tuesday.
Turkey and Hungary remain the only members of the 30-nation Western defense alliance that have not ratified Sweden’s and Finland’s membership bids.
But a decision by Swedish police to allow a protest in which a right-wing extremist burned a copy of the Koran outside the Turkish embassy in Stockholm earlier this month sparked outrage in Ankara and around the world.
Burning a holy book of another faith is “unacceptable,” Szijjarto said.
“As a Christian and as a Catholic, I have to say that burning a holy book from another religion is an unacceptable act,” Szijjarto said, criticizing a statement by Sweden’s prime minister that while the burning of the Koran was inappropriate and “deeply disrespectful,” it fell under Swedish protection of freedom of expression.
“To claim that the burning of a holy book is part of freedom of expression is just pure stupidity,” Szijjarto said, adding that “maybe they (Sweden) should act differently than that” if they want to secure Ankara’s support.
New members of the NATO alliance require unanimous approval from all 30 NATO member states.
Turkey has refused to ratify the two countries’ NATO membership bids, mainly because of Sweden’s refusal to extradite dozens of terrorist suspects that Ankara has requested.
Ankara also reacted with fury to a Swedish prosecutor’s decision not to press charges against a group that supports the YPG/PKK terrorists, which hung an effigy of Erdoğan by the ankles outside the Stockholm district court.
Ankara last week suspended Sweden’s and Finland’s accession negotiations.
“We have a clear position. We support the expansion of NATO,” he said.
Sweden and Finland ended decades of military non-alignment with applications to join NATO after Russia invaded Ukraine in February.
Turkey and Hungary remain the only members of the 30-nation Western defense alliance that have not ratified Sweden’s and Finland’s membership bids.
The question will be about The agenda of the Hungarian Parliament during the first session of the year in Februarysaid Szijjarto.
Szijjarto said that Hungary has a “clear position” regarding the admission of Sweden and Finland to NATO, but that it would not try to influence Türkiye in any way.
“I never call on any other foreign government to do things that we don’t care about,” Szijjarto said.