Sweden should not expect Turkey to support its bid for NATO membership, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday after a copy of the Koran was burned at a protest in Stockholm.
Sweden applied to join Nato after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – but it needs approval from Turkey, which is already a member.
Kurdish protesters in Sweden hanged an effigy of Mr Erdogan this month, followed by the burning of the Koran.
“Sweden should not expect support from us for NATO,” Erdogan said in response.
“It is clear that those who disrespected our country’s embassy in this way can no longer expect any goodwill from us regarding their application.”
Saturday’s protests – but not the burning of the book itself – were approved in advance by Swedish authorities.
Erdogan condemned the latest protest, by a far-right politician from a Danish party, as blasphemy that could not be defended by freedom of speech.
The Swedish government also criticized the protest.
“Sweden has very far-reaching freedom of expression, but that does not mean that the Swedish government, or I, support expression,” Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Bulström said on Saturday.
Responding to Mr Erdogan’s remarks on Monday, Mr Bilstrom said he wanted to understand exactly what the Turkish leader said before commenting.
“Sweden will respect the agreement that exists between Sweden, Finland and Turkey regarding our NATO membership,” he added.
Sweden applied to join NATO along with Finland after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but recent protests have heightened tensions.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said freedom of expression was a “precious commodity” in NATO countries, and that the actions, while inappropriate, were not “automatically illegal”.
Turkey, a majority Muslim country, called the Swedish government’s decision to allow the protests “totally unacceptable”.
“No one has the right to insult the saints,” Mr Erdogan said in his televised remarks on Monday.
“When we say something, we mean it honestly and when someone disrespects us, we put them in their place.”
Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said Turkey canceled the visit of his Swedish counterpart Paul Johnson after “it was observed that no measures were taken on the hateful protests”.
A flurry of earlier visits by Swedish senior ministers to the Turkish capital, Ankara, had raised hopes that the trip would ease objections to Sweden’s accession.
Because Turkey is already a member of NATO, it can block any other country from joining, and has already made several demands on Sweden. This includes the extradition of some Kurds who they claim are terrorists.
Earlier this month, Sweden’s prime minister said Kurdish protesters in Stockholm who hung an effigy of the Turkish president from a lamppost were trying to sabotage Sweden’s NATO bid.
A Swedish minister called the stunt “deplorable”, but Turkey said condemnation was not enough.
