Swedish FM: 'improper' for me to try to stop Turkey embassy Koran burning + Erdogan Hung In Effigy

[Celerity]

Sweden's foreign minister has said that it would be "extremely improper" for him to call for the Danish extremist Rasmus Paludan not to be allowed to burn the Koran outside the Turkish embassy in Stockholm.

https://www.thelocal.se/20230120/swedish-fm-improper-for-me-to-try-to-stop-turkey-embassy-koran-burning/


Sweden's Foreign Minister Tobias Billström at an EU meeting in Brussels in December. Photo: Wiktor Nummelin/TT

Swedish police on Friday granted the anti-Islamic extremist Rasmus Paludan permission to burn a copy of the Koran, the Muslim holy book, outside Turkey’s embassy, and has also granted permission for a pro-Turkish counter demonstration.

Swedish foreign minister Tobias Billström said that he was concerned that the demonstration risked further delaying Turkey’s ratification of Sweden’s Nato bid. “Everything that delays the process unnecessarily is naturally something which we take with the greatest seriousness,” he said.

Paludan, a law graduate who leads the extremist Hard Line party in his native Denmark, last year began carrying out Koran burnings in Sweden, leading to riots across the country last Easter.

Paludan said he was planning to hold a rally outside Turkey’s embassy at 1pm on Saturday, saying he hoped to “take a small stand for freedom of expression against Turkey”.

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Erdogan effigy stunt in Sweden aimed to reveal 'dictatorial' Turkey

https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20230117-erdogan-effigy-stunt-in-sweden-aimed-to-reveal-dictatorial-turkey



Stockholm (AFP) – Pro-Kurdish activists in Stockholm who hanged an effigy of Turkey's president, further impeding Sweden's bid to join NATO, say their stunt aimed to draw attention to Ankara's "dictatorial" regime. The brazen stunt in front of the city hall incensed Turkey, which is yet to ratify Sweden's bid to join NATO after Russia invaded Ukraine last February.

Ankara wants Stockholm to crack down on activists close to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party and people accused of having ties to Fethullah Gulen, a US-based preacher wanted over a failed 2016 coup, before it approves Sweden's NATO aspirations. Andreas, a 39-year-old Swede speaking to AFP on condition that his surname not be disclosed, showed a doll resembling Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, with a rope still tied to his ankles.

He and four other activists from the pro-Kurdish Rojava Committee of Sweden hung the effigy by the feet. The display was meant to mirror the grim end of Italy's late dictator Benito Mussolini in 1945, when his body was strung up after he was executed. Presented as a reminder of the fate of "dictators", the action was staged and filmed before being posted on social media.

The provocation caused outrage. Sweden's ambassador was summoned in Ankara, which denounced it as "terrorism". Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson called it "sabotage" and condemned a "mock execution of a foreign democratically-elected leader."

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