Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan has condemned the burning of the Islam's holy book Quran in Sweden on the first day of Muslims' major festival of Eid al Adha, calling it "unacceptable".
“It is unacceptable to allow these anti-Muslim actions under the pretext of freedom of expression,” Fidan said in a statement posted on social media.
“To turn a blind eye to such atrocious acts is to be a partner in crime,” he said.
Meanwhile, Omer Celik, spokesperson for Türkiye's Justice and Development (AK) Party said in a statement: "We condemn the Swedish authorities' approval of the application to burn the Qur'an in front of a mosque on Eid al Adha."
Hate crimes
"We strongly condemn the Swedish Supreme Court's stance on protecting hate crimes. Every disrespect is a crime against humanity. We will continue to fight against these cursed acts in the strongest way possible on all political and legal grounds," Celik added.
The remarks came after Swedish police granted earlier on Wednesday permission for a Quran-burning protest outside a mosque.
The police said in the written decision that the security risks associated with the burning "were not of a nature that could justify, under current laws, a decision to reject the request."
The green light came two weeks after a Swedish appeals court rejected the police's decision to deny permits for two demonstrations in Stockholm which were to include Quran burnings.
Police had at the time cited security concerns, following a burning of the Muslim holy book outside Turkey's embassy in January which led to weeks of protests, calls for a boycott of Swedish goods and further stalled Sweden's NATO membership bid.
Muslims are outraged by the destruction of their holy text and similar acts have in the past sparked violent protests.Police argued the January protest had made Sweden "a higher priority target for attacks".
Türkiye, which has blocked the country's NATO bid due to what it perceives as Stockholm's failure to crack down on Kurdish groups it considers "terrorists", took particular offence that police had authorised the January demonstration.
Police then banned two subsequent requests for protests involving Quran burnings - one by a private individual and one by an organisation, outside the Turkish and Iraqi embassies in Stockholm in February.
