Turkey cancels tripartite meeting on NATO expansion over Stockholm incident

Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said this at a joint press conference with First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Serbia Ivica Dačić, Ukrinform’s own correspondent reports.

"Under the current conditions, a tripartite meeting makes no sense. It was postponed because the current situation would affect it, and the atmosphere would not be healthy. We also see that Sweden has not taken serious steps to comply with the agreement," the minister said.

Çavuşoğlu also emphasized that the burning of the Quran in Sweden was a hate crime and an act of racism.

"The Swedish government has become a partner in this crime by allowing this despicable act," the minister said.

According to him, one of the goals of the masterminds behind the provocation is to prevent Sweden from joining NATO.

"Sweden must decide: does it want to join NATO or not? One of the goals of these actions is to prevent Sweden from joining NATO. They cooperate with the PKK, laying mines under the membership process. Sweden must defuse these mines," said the Turkish minister.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, after the public burning of the Quran in Stockholm, Turkey demanded that Sweden comply with the agreements of the Tripartite Memorandum regarding the accession of nations to NATO and investigate the incident.

The prime minister of Sweden condemned the burning of the Quran outside the Turkish embassy in Stockholm and expressed his condolences to Muslims.

At the same time, the prosecutor's office refused to open a case as no signs of a crime were documented.

Subsequently, Ankara canceled a tripartite meeting between Turkey, Sweden, and Finland regarding the accession of these countries to NATO.

Later, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said that Sweden should not expect Turkey's support in its bid to join NATO because it shows “disrespect” for religious beliefs and “supports” terrorist organizations.

As reported by a U.S.-based think tank Robert Lansing Institute, it is the Russian military intelligence agency, formerly known as the GRU, which stands behind the provocation in Stockholm, aiming to hinder Sweden’s NATO accession plans.