Turkey cancels Swedish minister’s visit

Turkey cancels Swedish minister’s visit

The decision comes after Stockholm granted permission for protests against Turkey.

Defence minister Pal Jonson had planned to travel to Turkey to nudge them towards ratifying Sweden’s Nato bid. (AFP pic)
ISTANBUL:
Turkish defence minister Hulusi Akar said today that a planned visit by his Swedish counterpart to Ankara has been cancelled after Swedish authorities granted permission for protests in Stockholm.

“At this point, the visit of Swedish defence minister Pal Jonson to Turkey on Jan 27 has become meaningless. So we cancelled the visit,” Akar said.

Swedish defence minister Jonson had planned to travel next week to Ankara at the invitation of his Turkish counterpart as the Nordic country hopes to nudge Turkey to ratify its bid to join Nato.

Akar said he discussed the lack of measures for protests in Sweden against Turkey with President Tayyip Erdogan and conveyed his reaction to his Swedish counterpart on the sidelines of a meeting of Ukraine Defence Contact Group.

“It is unacceptable not to make a move or react to these (protests). The necessary things needed to be done, measures should have been taken,” Akar said according to a statement by the Turkish defence ministry.

On Friday, Turkey summoned the Swedish ambassador over authorities’ permission for a protest, in which the Muslim holy book the Koran will be burned, near the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm scheduled to be held today.

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