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Turkish President Erdoğan gives a speech in Ankara
Photo: ADEM ALTAN / AFP
Turkey is blocking Sweden's entry into NATO, which has long strained relations between Stockholm and Ankara.
A macabre protest action in Sweden will not improve the mood: demonstrators hung a doll of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan by its feet.
The incident happened on Thursday within sight of Stockholm City Hall.
Swedish politicians immediately condemned the action.
Foreign Minister Tobias Billström, for example, wrote on Twitter on Thursday that the portrayal of an executed elected president was abhorrent.
The Swedish government protects open debate about political decisions, but firmly rejects threats and hatred against political representatives.
Kristersson's "extremely serious" incident
Sweden's Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson spoke of an "extremely serious" incident dedicated to the sabotage of Sweden's NATO application.
The "mock execution of a foreign, democratically elected leader" is particularly reprehensible in Sweden.
In the past, Prime Minister Olof Palme and Foreign Minister Anna Lindh were killed in assassinations in the country.
According to Kristersson, it is still too early to say whether the whole thing will affect the NATO process - but the risk is there.
Just a few days ago, Kristersson was cautiously optimistic that Sweden's accession could make progress: "Now the decision lies with Turkey."
On the Turkish side, the reactions are clear: the Swedish ambassador in Ankara was summoned, and a planned visit by the Swedish speaker of the parliament, Andreas Norlén, to the Turkish capital was cancelled.
The Turkish public prosecutor's office also initiated investigations.
The Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu also said, apparently with a view to the Scandinavians' planned NATO accession, that Sweden's "expectations will not be met as long as something like this is going on".
The condemnation of the action is not enough, said the minister.
Turkey has been blocking Sweden's NATO membership for months
In response to the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, Sweden had applied for NATO membership together with Finland in May 2022.
However, the process is still stuck in a blockade by Turkey.
She is already a member of the military alliance.
New admissions must be approved unanimously.
Ankara accuses Sweden in particular of not taking decisive action against people and groups that Ankara calls "terrorist", including the Kurdish Workers' Party PKK, which is also banned in Germany, and the Syrian Kurdish militia YPG.
»PKK and YPG lay mines for Sweden on the way to NATO membership«
»The PKK and YPG are laying mines on Sweden's path to NATO membership.
It is now up to Sweden to clear these mines or knowingly step on them,” Foreign Minister Cavusoglu said after the action in Stockholm.
He blamed PKK and YPG supporters for the incident.
According to reports, activists from a Swedish organization that describes itself as "a network for solidarity and exchange with the revolutionary movement throughout Kurdistan" were behind the action.
They wanted to put Erdoğan close to the fascist Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, whose body had been hung upside down in Milan in 1945.
fek/dpa/Reuters/AP
