ANKARA, 4 Jul: Turkey\u2019s foreign minister said Tues-day that Swedish autho-rities\u2019 failure to prevent Quran-burning protests in the country is raising security concerns and questions about Sweden\u2019s credentials for possible NATO membership.
\nBut Hakan Fidan said Turkey would still approve Sweden\u2019s membership in the military alliance if Stockholm \u201ccompletes its homework\u201d and presses ahead with efforts to address Turkey\u2019s concerns.
\n\u201cThe fact that the Swedish security system is incapable of preventing provocations and is presenting an image of a (country) that brings problems to NATO \u2014 instead of more power \u2014 is making us think in terms of the strategic and security aspects,\u201d Fidan said at a joint news conference with his Jordanian counterpart.
\n\u201cWhen it comes to Sweden\u2019s membership in NATO, whether it will become a burden or a benefit has become more open to debate,\u201d he said.
\nSweden and Finland abandoned their decades-long neutrality and applied to join NATO last year following Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine.
\nTurkey has been holding off ratifying Sweden\u2019s membership in the alliance, accusing the country of being too soft toward groups that Ankara regards as threats to its security, including Kurdish militants and members of a network that Ankara blames for a failed coup in 2016.
\nAnkara has also been angered by a series of demonstrations in Sweden by supporters of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers\u2019 Party, or PKK, as well as Quran-burning protests, including one that took place last week that was condemned by Muslim countries.
\nThe PKK has waged a 38-year insurgency against Turkey that has left tens of thousands dead. It is designated a terrorist organization by the U.S and the European Union.
\nNATO wants to bring Sweden into the fold by the time the alliance\u2019s leaders meet in Lithuania on July 11 to 12, and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has called a meeting of senior officials from Turkey, Sweden and Finland for July 6 to try to overcome Turkish objections to Sweden\u2019s membership.
\nNATO requires the unanimous approval of all existing members to expand. Turkey and Hungary are the only countries that have not yet ratified Sweden\u2019s bid.
\nSweden has changed its anti-terror legislation after applying for membership. Fidan, Turkey\u2019s former intelligence chief who was appointed foreign minister last month, maintained that terror groups were able to continue to stage demonstrations, raise money and recruit members in Sweden.
\n\u201dIf Sweden continues with its efforts and does its homework, there are always alternatives, just as there was in the case of Finland,\u201d Fidan said. He was referring to a memorandum that Sweden and Finland signed with Turkey last year under which they agreed to address Ankara\u2019s concerns.
\nFinland was able to join the alliance earlier this year, after Turkey expressed satisfaction with its efforts to meet demands and the Turkish parliament ratified its membership.
\nMeanwhile, Pope Francis lamented last week\u2019s Quran-burning protest outside a mosque in central Stockholm in an interview with the United Arab Emirates\u2019 Al-Ittihad newspaper. Swedish police allowed the event to take place, citing freedom of speech, after a court overturned a ban on a similar Quran-burning.
\n\u201cAny book considered sacred by its authors must be respected out of respect for its believers, and freedom of expression must never be used as an excuse to despise others, and to allow this, must be rejected and condemned,\u201d the pope was quoted as saying.
\nIn Sweden, a top bishop called the incident \u201can attack\u201d on all believers.
\n\u201dFreedom of speech is about standing up for things, but it\u2019s not about being allowed to do it at any price,\u201d Ake Bonnier, a bishop who is acting as a spokesperson for Sweden\u2019s Lutheran Archbishop Martin Modeus, told Swedish broadcaster SVT on Monday.
\nThe Jordanian foreign minister also called for mutual respect of religious values and for the prevention of such protests.
\nA spokesperson for the United Nations Human Rights Council said Tues-day that following a request by Pakistan, the council will discuss \u201cthe alarming rise\u201d in acts of religious hatred such as the desecration of the Quran. (AP)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ANKARA, 4 Jul: Turkey\u2019s foreign minister said Tues-day that Swedish autho-rities\u2019 failure to prevent Quran-burning protests in the country is raising security concerns and questions about Sweden\u2019s credentials for possible NATO membership. But Hakan Fidan said Turkey would still approve Sweden\u2019s membership in the military alliance if Stockholm \u201ccompletes its homework\u201d and presses ahead with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-219707","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219707"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219707\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}