The Secretary General of NATO on Monday castigated the angle of the Turkish President, who threatens to dam Sweden’s NATO club after an extremist burned a replica of the Koran on Saturday in Stockholm.
In an interview on German tv Die Welt, transcribed in a German press liberate through the channel, Norwegian Jens Stoltenberg condemned Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s place on Sweden.
“Freedom of expression, freedom of opinion is a precious commodity, in Sweden and in all other NATO countries. And that is why these inappropriate acts are not automatically illegal,” he stated.
Swedish-Danish right-wing extremist Rasmus Paludan burned a replica of the Koran on Saturday afternoon in an act aimed toward denouncing the negotiations Swedish with Ankara on NATO.
“The Swedish government has condemned (this demonstration) in very clear terms”, recalled Mr. Stoltenberg in his interview with die Welt.
On Monday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reacted strongly, pointing out that Sweden, a candidate for NATO club, may just now not depend at the “support” of Ankara after this burning.
Mr Stoltenberg claimed to be “absolutely against this kind of insults towards other people”, and “to be absolutely against this behavior that we have seen in the streets of Stockholm”.
Turkey has been blockading Sweden’s – and Finland’s – access into NATO since May, accusing them of harboring Kurdish militants and sympathizers whom it calls “terrorists”, specifically the ones of the PKK and its allies in northern Syria and Iraq.
For Ankara, any imaginable growth will depend on Swedish strikes to extradite folks accused of terrorism through Turkey or of participating within the 2016 coup strive in opposition to Mr Erdogan.
Mr. Stoltenberg, in spite of this context, felt that Turkey had thus far been reasonably cooperative within the debate on NATO club.
The ratification of the accession protocols will have to no longer fail within the ultimate hurdles.
“I am in close contact with Finland and Sweden, and of course also with our ally Turkey,” he added.
According to him, 28 of the 30 NATO nations have already given their consent of their nationwide parliaments.
“And of course I also ask the remaining allies – Hungary and Turkey – to speed up these procedures in their parliaments,” he concluded.
