Denmark Shuns Turkish Politicians While Sweden Welcomes Them With Riots

On Sunday, Danish Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen called on his Turkish counterpart to delay a planned March visit because of intensifying friction between Ankara and the Netherlands. At the same time, a high-ranking Turkish politician visited Sweden, which ended in riots.

Danish Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen urged his Turkish counterpart Binali Yildirim to call-off his visit scheduled for March 20, citing the diplomatic row between Turkey and the Netherlands, Danish Radio reported.

The row broke out after the Dutch politicians prevented holding rallies ahead of a referendum on April 20 on expanding President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's powers. In the follow-up to the Dutch ban, Erdogan accused the Netherlands of Nazi attitudes and said it was behaving "like a banana republic."

As a token of solidarity with the Dutch, Løkke Rasmussen stressed that it would have been a pleasure to welcome Yildirim under normal circumstances. However, he stressed that Turkey's rhetoric and verbal attacks were incompatible with the planned meeting. Rasmussen added that Denmark "was following the events in Turkey, where democratic principles allegedly were under great pressure, "with serious concern." Previously, senior Turkish ministers were blocked from campaigning in several countries including the Netherlands and Germany.

Denmark's fellow Nordic nation Sweden, however, chose an entirely different path by allowing a senior member of Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP) to hold a rally in Stockholm, defending its choice with freedom of speech.

Swedish Culture and Democracy Minister Alice Bah Kuhnke stressed that AKP International Secretary Mehmet Mehdi Eker had not been invited by the Swedish government, yet admitted that Sweden had no plans to prevent Eker's controversial election tour in Sweden, despite the marked souring of the Turkish-EU relations, the Swedish daily Svenska Dagbladet reported. Eker's rallies in Sweden are part of AKP's attempt to garner support from fellow Turks abroad for the upcoming referendum. Sweden, a nation of 10 million, has a significant Turkish diaspora of 75,000 people, of which 45,000 were born in Turkey.

"He came here of his own accord," Bah Kunhke told Swedish public broadcaster SVT about Eker's visit, stressing the fact he was allegedly "exercising his freedom of speech and right to assembly" and ensuring that Sweden did not issue travel bans against people.

On Sunday, Eker spoke at several locations in Stockholm to an audience of several hundred people. There was a heavy police presence at the meetings in order to keep supporters and protesters apart. Several people were apprehended by the police, and the demonstrations did not escalate to serious violence.

The negative reaction towards AKP's campaigning was the strongest among Sweden's Kurdish diaspora which numbers some 100,000 people and expressed disbelief over Sweden not following fellow EU states Germany, the Netherlands and Denmark. Previously, clashes between Sweden's Turks and Kurds occurred in the very same district of Stockholm, where Eker tried to garner his fellow Turks' support.

Liberal integration spokesperson Fredrik Malm warned that the Turkish campaigning in Sweden may potentially increase the tensions between various ethnic groups, Swedish Radio reported.

 

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