The Turkish Minister of Defense, Hulusi Akar, considered it regrettable to see how the Swedish authorities failed to implement any measures to prevent such repugnant actions.

The official dispatch came after the Swedish authorities permitted the burning of a copy of the Koran near the Turkish embassy in Stockholm, Anadolu Agency reported.

After that, Johnson’s visit, scheduled for the 27th, is meaningless, the head of the Defense Ministry, quoted by Anadolu, clarified while speaking at a meeting of his colleagues from Western nations at the German base in Ramstein.

Turkiye’s only demand, he said, is the fulfillment by Sweden and Finland of a memorandum signed in Madrid under conditions demanded by Ankara for those countries’ accession to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a decision taken by consensus.

The Turkish government demands that Sweden and Finland refrain from welcoming in their territories members of groups they consider to be terrorists.

Helsinki and Stockholm are trying to justify their decision to abandon their neutral status to join the Atlantic alliance with the alleged increase of a threat from Russia.

jrr/arm/mem/to.