Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar announced the cancellation of his Swedish counterpart Pal Johnson’s scheduled visit to Ankara on January 27.
The cancellation of the visit comes against the backdrop of the Swedish authorities’ failure to take action against the provocations of the supporters of the “BKK/YPG” terrorist organization and allowing them to burn a copy of the Holy Quran.
This came in a statement made by the Turkish minister to reporters following the “Ukrainian Defense Contact Group meeting” held at Ramstein Air Base in Germany on Friday.
Akar criticized Sweden’s failure to take action against the provocations of the terrorist “BKK / YBG” supporters and its permission to burn a copy of the Holy Qur’an in Stockholm.
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And he stressed that “at this stage, Swedish Defense Minister Pal Johnson’s visit to Turkey on January 27 lost its importance and meaning, so we canceled it.”
He stressed the need to implement the provisions of the tripartite memorandum signed in Madrid last June between Turkey, Sweden and Finland, indicating that “our only request is to fulfill the obligations contained in the memorandum, and we expect Sweden and Finland to fulfill their roles and duties.”
He recalled the provocations of supporters of the “PKK/YPG” terrorist organization in Sweden against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Turkey, and the news that the Swedish police allowed demonstrations in front of the Ankara embassy in Stockholm to burn a copy of the Holy Quran.
Akar added, “It is unacceptable that Sweden remains inactive and does nothing against these people. The necessary measures had to be taken.”
He indicated that he conveyed his country’s reaction on this issue to Swedish Defense Minister Johnson, who met with him within the framework of the “Ukrainian defense contact group meeting.”
And he added, “Unfortunately, the Swedish authorities did not take any action against the despicable and heinous provocations against Turkey and its president, and the visit of Swedish Defense Minister Johnson to Turkey on January 27 at this stage has no significance or meaning, so we canceled the visit.”
On the sidelines of the meeting, Akar met with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg before the meeting.
Later, Akar met with his British counterparts Ben Wallace, Polish Mariusz Blaszczak, Dutch Defense Minister Kajsa Olongren, and also met with Italian Defense Minister Guido Crocito.
He also met Germany’s new defense minister, Boris Pistorius, and his counterparts, the American Lloyd Austin, the Finnish Mikko Savola, the Romanian Angel Telvar and the Ukrainian Oleksiy Reznikov.
