Ankara prosecutors investigate Quran-burning incidents in Sweden, Netherlands

Photo: AA

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The Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office has opened an ex-officio investigation into two far-right politicians who burned and tore apart Quran in separate incidents last month.

On January 21, Rasmus Paludan, an executive of Stram Kurs, a far-right party in Denmark, burned the holy book of Islam while displaying a cartoon mocking prophet Muhammad outside of Türkiye's embassy in Stockholm. On January 27, he repeated the action outside of a mosque in Copenhagen.

Edwin Wagensveld, leader of the far-right PEGIDA movement, also attempted to burn the Quran outside of the parliament in the Hague. After officers prevented him, he tore the book apart.

"It has been understood that the suspects committed acts of provoking the public into hatred and hostility, targeting Quran Karim and the Prophet of Islam," the prosecutor's office said in a press release yesterday (January 31).

The politicians are charged with "provoking the public into hatred and hostility" and "publicly degrading religious values adopted by a section of the public."

Türkiye also took diplomatic action against the incidents, summoning ambassadors of Denmark and the Netherlands separately.

Security warnings

After the incidents, embassies of the US, the UK, Germany, the Netherlands and France warned their citizens in Türkiye against possible "terror attacks" targeting.

"US government cautions its citizens of possible imminent retaliatory attacks by terrorists against churches, synagogues, and diplomatic missions in Istanbul or other places Westerners frequent, especially in the Beyoğlu, Galata, Taksim, and İstiklal areas," the US Embassy said on January 30. (SD/VK)