“If I want to turn ‘Svenska Nyheter’ into Kurdish news, I will do it,” said host Kristoffer Appelqvist before handing over the satirical program to the Swedish-Kurdish comedian Kadir Meral. For almost ten minutes, the comedian joked, among other things, that President Erdogan is responsible for the bubbles on the surface of the explosion of the Nord Stream pipeline after eating too much shish kebab.
The feature aroused strong reactions in Turkey, where the pro-regime newspaper Sabah, among other things, called the feature a “shame for Swedish television”.
Turkey’s ambassador: “Offensive and unpleasant”
After the incident, Sweden’s ambassador to Turkey was called to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Ankara to discuss the feature. Now Turkey’s ambassador to Sweden, Yönet Can Tezel, comments on the feature, and its aftermath, in SVT’s 30 minutes. Here he says that he likes comedy and satire – when it’s done well.
Why was a Swedish ambassador summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs?
– It was offensive and unpleasant, but it is not a crime. We only expressed that we felt offended, and so did Swedish Turks, the Turkish ambassador answers the host for 30 minutes.
Watch Yönet Can Tezel explain Turkey’s reactions to the feature in Svenska Nyheter in the video above.