Sweden is deliberately endangering its process of entering NATO, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said on Saturday after frequent anti-Türkiye and anti-Islam provocations were not hindered in Stockholm, causing resentment in Ankara.
"Terrorist organizations are laying mines ... and Sweden is deliberately stepping on them. They can clear them if they want," Çavuşoğlu said in the southern Turkish province of Antalya.
On provocations of terrorist groups targeting Türkiye and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Sweden, Çavuşoğlu said: "It is for Sweden to decide whether to clear the mines or step on them. If you step on them, they will explode."
Terrorist organizations are "roaming in your country," he said, adding that if Sweden fulfills its commitments made in a tripartite memorandum for NATO accession, "we will sit down, talk and keep our word."
Tensions escalated between Sweden and Türkiye after a range of anti-Türkiye and anti-Islam provocations in the country.
In one of the acts that took place in Sweden, Erdoğan's effigy was hanged on a lamppost outside Stockholm’s City Hall. In another incident, a far-right activist burned a Quran outside the Turkish Embassy.
Türkiye postponed the next tripartite meeting slated for February in Brussels with Sweden and Finland on their NATO bids while also canceling a parliamentary and defense minister visit by Stockholm to Ankara. The protests in Sweden also led to a wave of anti-Swedish protests in other Muslim countries.
Following the incidents, Erdoğan said last week that Türkiye looks positively on Finland's application for NATO membership but does not support Sweden's bid.
Sweden and neighboring Finland abandoned decades of non-alignment and applied to join NATO in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. All NATO members except Türkiye and Hungary have ratified their accession, but unanimity is required.
Ankara has previously said Sweden in particular must first take a clearer stance against terrorists. Türkiye has frequently voiced that it does not oppose NATO enlargement but criticizes Stockholm for not taking action against elements that are posing a security threat to Ankara.
Last June, Türkiye and the two Nordic countries signed a memorandum to address Ankara’s legitimate security concerns, paving the way for their eventual membership in the alliance. But recent provocative demonstrations by terrorist sympathizers and Islamophobic figures in Stockholm have led Turkish leaders to question Sweden’s commitment to take the steps necessary to gain NATO membership.
Ankara has long criticized Stockholm for housing members of various terrorist organizations, particularly members of the PKK and, in recent years, the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) – the organization behind the 2016 defeated coup attempt in Türkiye.
Ahead of a historic NATO summit, the three countries signed a trilateral deal in June that prevented a Turkish veto. In the memorandum, the Nordic countries said they would address Türkiye’s extradition requests for terrorists. In addition, the joint directive states that Finland and Sweden "will not provide support to ... the organization described as FETÖ" and terrorist groups."
Consulate closures
Criticizing the recent closure of some Western consulates in Istanbul, Çavuşoğlu said: "If you do not take a step back, we will take the necessary steps" by summoning ambassadors to the Foreign Ministry.
"They say they received information on security threats. If you do not share the information with us, we look for the intent behind this and we know that these actions are deliberate," Çavuşoğlu said.
"We even know that some ambassadors are calling others to join the move. We summoned them to the ministry. We have made the necessary warnings. We said that we know what you want to do, and you are trying to show Türkiye as unstable," he said.
Çavuşoğlu’s remarks came a day after Türkiye summoned ambassadors of Western countries, including the U.S., to criticize their decision to temporarily shut diplomatic missions and issue security alerts following recent burnings in Europe of Islam's holy book the Quran.
The ambassadors of Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland and the U.K. were also summoned to the Foreign Ministry, according to Turkish diplomatic sources, who were told that such simultaneous acts do not show a proportional and prudent approach, but instead serve the "insidious agenda of terrorist groups."
Several foreign missions warned last week of an increased risk of attacks in Türkiye and closed some of their missions.
Türkiye’s interior minister accused the countries of waging "psychological warfare" and attempting to wreck Türkiye’s tourism industry.
Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu said Thursday that Türkiye had conducted as many as 60 operations against Daesh so far this year and detained 95 people. Last year, close to 2,000 Daesh suspects were detained in over 1,000 operations against the group, he said.
Last weekend, Türkiye’s Foreign Ministry issued a travel warning for European countries due to anti-Turkish and anti-Islam demonstrations.
15 suspects arrested
Meanwhile, the Istanbul police on Saturday arrested 15 Daesh suspects who allegedly received instructions to act on some consulates and places of worship for Jews and Christians. Istanbul Police Department anti-terrorism branch teams started work to decipher the activities of the Daesh terrorist organization and to apprehend the suspects.
The arrests came after the so-called Khorasan Province (ISKP) leadership of the terrorist organization Daesh allegedly ordered acts against the Swedish and Dutch Consulates in Istanbul and places of worship belonging to Christian and Jewish citizens following the recent burning of Islam's holy book, the Quran, the Istanbul police department said in a statement.
The police said it was determined that the suspects had a connection with the terrorist group and conflict zones but "concrete threats" against foreign missions and places of worship "could not be detected."