Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reaffirmed Wednesday that Turkiye won't allow Sweden to join the NATO military alliance as long as it permits protests desecrating Islam's holy book to take place.
Turkiye, which has been holding off approving Sweden and Finland's membership in the Western military alliance, has been infuriated by a series of demonstrations in Stockholm by activists who have burned the Quran outside the Turkish Embassy and hanged an effigy of Erdogan. It has indefinitely postponed a key meeting in Brussels that would have discussed the two Nordic countries' entry into NATO.
On Tuesday, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson denounced the activists who carried out the demonstrations as "useful idiots" for foreign powers who want to inflict harm on the Scandinavian country as it seeks to join NATO. Sweden and neighbouring Finland abandoned decades of non-alignment and applied to join NATO in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. All NATO members except Turkiye and Hungary have ratified their accession, but unanimity is required.
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