ANKARA, Turkey: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan confirmed on Wednesday (February 1st) that Turkey will not allow Sweden to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) military alliance as long as it allows protests that desecrate Islam’s holy book to take place.

Turkey, which has held off on approving Sweden and Finland’s membership of the Western military alliance, has been angered by a series of demonstrations in Stockholm by activists who have burned Korans outside the Turkish embassy and hanged a picture of Erdogan. A key meeting in Brussels that would have discussed the two Nordic countries’ entry into NATO has been postponed indefinitely.

“Sweden, don’t even bother! As long as you allow my holy book, the Koran, to be burned and torn, and you do it together with your security forces, we will not say ‘yes’ to your entry into NATO,” Erdogan said in a speech at his sentencing. the party’s legislators.

Swedish government officials have distanced themselves from the protestsprovoked by a far-right anti-Islam activist who burned copies of the Koran in Stockholm and Copenhagen, Denmark, while stressing that the demonstrations were protected by freedom of speech.

On Tuesday, Sweden’s Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson condemned the activists who staged the demonstrations as “useful idiots” for foreign powers who want to harm the Scandinavian country as it tries to join NATO.

– We have seen how foreign actors, even state actors, have used these demonstrations to incite the situation in a way that is directly harmful to Swedish security, Kristersson told reporters in Stockholm without naming any countries.