Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that it is not yet known how long the Turkish parliament will consider Sweden’s application for NATO membership.
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“The fact that the protocols for Sweden’s accession to NATO are sent to the Turkish Grand National Assembly (Parliament) and that the process is moving quickly in Parliament is in direct proportion to Sweden staying true to its promises. Our Parliament will decide on this matter. We don’t know “How long this issue will be discussed in our parliament and commissions and how long it will take. First of all, Sweden needs to protect the streets of Stockholm. If they do not protect the streets of Stockholm, if these attacks on sacred values continue, let them not be offended,” Erdogan said journalists upon their return from Hungary.
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Finland and Sweden, against the background of the events in Ukraine in May 2022, applied to join the alliance. Finland became the 31st member of NATO on 4 April. Sweden’s application has not yet received final Hungarian and Turkish approval. Sweden, as a member of the European Union, in negotiations with Erdogan in Vilnius before the NATO summit, agreed, in exchange for the ratification of the application, to help intensify the process of Turkey’s accession to the EU. At the same time, the NATO Secretary General emphasized that, in principle, the issues of Sweden’s accession to NATO and Turkey’s accession to the EU “are not connected with each other.”
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Earlier in Sweden and Denmark, actions were held with the desecration and burning of the Holy Quran for Muslims. The Organization of Islamic Cooperation and many of its members strongly condemned such actions.
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The Swedish authorities have announced that they will start reviewing the law on public order, which allows actions with the burning of the Koran.
