FM Çavuşoğlu: 'The purpose of demonstrations is to prevent Sweden's NATO membership'

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"The purpose of the provocations and provocateurs in Sweden is to prevent Sweden's NATO membership," told Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, the Foreign Minister of Türkiye reporters following his meeting with his Estonian counterpart.

Çavuşoğlu met Urmas Reinsalu, the Foreign Minister of Estonia in Tallin today (February 1). In the joint press conference after the meeting, Çavuşoğlu and Reinsalu answered questions on the tension between Türkiye and Sweden after the burning of Qur'an by extreme rightist Rasmus Paludan in front of the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm.

Çavuşoğlu named the demonstrations "provocations" and said their purpose was to prevent Sweden's NATO membership. He reiterated that Ankara was expecting Sweden to take concrete steps in order to fulfill its promises in the Trilateral Memorandum signed on June 28, 2022, at the NATO summit in Madrid.

On the possibility that Finland will continue its NATO bid independent from Sweden, the Foreign Minister said, "At this stage, Türkiye has not carried out any work in order to take a different approach to the membership of Finland."

"This is a step to be taken in the framework of NATO. If the two countries decide to separate their processes for NATO membership, and if NATO decides to separate these processes, of course, Türkiye will evaluate Finlandiya's membership independently at that stage and will judge it more positively," Çavuşoğlu said.

"Is Russia behind the demonstrations?"

The Foreign Minister of Türkiye responded to a question on the claims that Russia was behind the Qur'an burning demonstrations in Sweden and Denmark.

"I cannot say that this country or this group is behind this provocation but I can tell you clearly that the purpose of these provocations and provocateurs is to prevent Sweden's NATO membership," Çavuşoğlu said.

"PKK (Kurdistan Worker's Party) supporters and FETÖ (organization of Fethullah Gulen supporters declared a terrorist organization following the attempted coup in 2016) know that there will be more pressure on them when Finland and Sweden and especially Sweden become NATO members.

"There are some political parties and some politicians in both countries who do not want their countries to be NATO members," Çavuşoğlu said and added that therefore it was not possible for him to say who was behind these events without any proof.

PM of Sweden: "Useful fools"

Ulf Kristersson, the Prime Minister of Sweden also talked about the Qur'an burning demonstrations in a press conference he held following a closed-door meeting he held with leaders of political parties in Sweden.

Kristersson named those who organized these demonstrations "useful fools who benefit foreign powers" that wish to harm Sweden. (SD/PE)