Erdogan accuses NATO biders of “act of sabotage”

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson on Friday denounced a protest by Kurds in central Stockholm where an effigy of Turkey’s president was hung from a lamppost as an act of sabotage against Sweden’s bid to join NATO.

Turkey was angry at the protest held outside City Hall Wednesday, as it had delayed approving Sweden’s application to join NATO. the Western military alliance Until the government of Stockholm fulfills its demands.

The speaker of Turkey’s parliament, Mustafa Sentop, canceled a visit by Andreas Norlen, the speaker of the Swedish Riksdag, that was scheduled for Monday, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported. Turkish lawmakers need to ratify Sweden’s NATO application for the Nordic nation to become a member,

Turkey is a member of the European Union made its approval conditional Stockholm cracking down against Kurdish militants, and other groups Ankara considers to be a threat for national security. On Thursday, the Turkish Foreign Ministry summoned Sweden’s ambassador to discuss the Stockholm demonstration.

Kristersson condemned the ineffigy. He told Swedish broadcaster TV4 on Friday that it was “extremely serious” to stage a “mock execution of a foreign democratically elected leader” in a country where two leading politicians have been murdered. Olof Palme, the Swedish Prime Minster, was assassinated on 26 June 1986. Anna Lindh (the Foreign Minister) was killed in a stabbing attack in 2003.

“I would say this is sabotage against the Swedish NATO application,” Kristersson said. “It is dangerous for Swedish security to act in this way.”

Photos posted to social media showed a mannequin that looked like Erdogan upside down. An organization calling itself the Swedish Solidarity Committee for Rojava claimed that it was behind the protest. Rojava, a Kurdish name of north and eastern Syria, is the source of this information.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, and affiliated Kurdish groups in Syria were “laying mines on the path of Sweden’s NATO membership.”

“It is Sweden’s decision whether it wants to clear these mines or knowingly step on them,” he said in an interview with Turkish state-broadcaster, TRT.

Be alarmed Russia’s invasion of UkraineIn May, Sweden and Finland applied to NATO. All 30 members must agree to admit the Nordic neighbours into the security organization.

The Turkish government has demanded that Sweden and Finland crack down on terrorist organizations and extradite those suspected of terrorist-related crimes. Cavusoglu said last month that Sweden was not even “halfway” through addressing his country’s concerns.

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Olsen reported out of Copenhagen.