Swedish Ambassador to Turkey Staffan Herrström was summoned to the Turkish Foreign Ministry on Monday over images of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan that were projected on the Turkish embassy building in Stockholm during protests, Reuters reported.
Diplomatic sources speaking to Reuters said a group sympathetic to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) staged a protest near Turkey’s embassy in Stockholm and projected what Ankara said was “terrorist propaganda” and insulting content about Erdoğan onto the building.
The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey and much of the international community.
Turkey expects Sweden to track down those responsible, the diplomatic sources told Reuters.
Sweden and Finland abandoned their longstanding policies of military nonalignment and applied for NATO membership this year after Russian forces invaded Ukraine in February.
NATO member Turkey is threatening to freeze Sweden and Finland’s attempts to join NATO unless they extradite dozens of people Ankara accuses of “terrorism.”
Bülent Keneş, an academic and the former editor-in-chief of the now-closed English language Today’s Zaman daily, is among a number of political dissidents whose extradition is sought by Turkey from Sweden in exchange for Turkey dropping its objection to the Nordic country joining NATO.
