Over the weekend, extensive protests were held in Turkey against right-wing extremist Rasmus Paludan’s Koran burning in Stockholm. The protests began on Saturday and continued unabated on Sunday. Among other things, the Swedish flag was set on fire.
The opposition in Turkey is much more friendly towards Europe than Erdogan is, and has criticized him for the way in which he presented his criticism of Sweden.
The opposition upset
Sweden’s chance of being admitted to NATO has been – and still is – higher if the opposition wins the election in May. But Paludan’s burning of the Koran outside the Turkish embassy in Stockholm has upset it too.
According to Turkey expert Paul Levin, it is no longer likely that Sweden’s NATO application will be automatically ratified after the election if the opposition wins.
— There is a political dynamic where a broad Turkish population takes the burning seriously. Political points can be scored by marking against it, he says.
Compared to Kristallnacht
Paul Levin has previously warned that Sweden’s NATO membership could become an election issue in Turkey, that the parties are competing to show themselves strong and put their foot down. And so it seems to be. During the Sunday published Today’s news an interview with Erdogan’s communications director Fahrettin Altun in which he compares the Koran burning to Kristallnacht in 1938, when the Nazis murdered Jews, burned synagogues and destroyed Jewish-owned shops in Germany and Austria.
The day before, Devlet Bahceli, chairman of Erdogan’s support party MHP, said that Turkey cannot approve Sweden’s NATO application under “such conditions”. He repeated the perhaps deliberate misunderstanding that Sweden’s government in any way approved or encouraged the burning of the Koran.
— I don’t know if you should attach so much importance to that particular statement really. You can hardly call it a turnaround because he has not stated the opposite before, says Paul Levin.
May be drawn out
With Sweden’s NATO application being used in the Turkish election debate, it is now almost impossible that Sweden would be allowed in before the elections in May. And if Erdogan wins, it could drag on for quite some time even after the election.
According to Paul Levin, Erdogan may find it difficult to let Sweden in if the demonstrations against him continue, without showing himself weak.