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NATO Charter burning rally held in Sweden with no police interference

The Turkish president gave the green light to Sweden's accession to NATO, which reportedly made the organizer of the rally protest

President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan EPA-EFE/TIM IRELAND

President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan

© EPA-EFE/TIM IRELAND

STOCKHOLM, July 12./TASS/. A demonstration that saw the NATO Charter burned in Helsingborg in southern Sweden went off without incident on Wednesday, as numerous police officers stood by without interfering since there was no illegal action, the Helsingborgs Dagblad newspaper reported.

The organizer of the rally, 29-year-old Lucas Ljungkvist, initially applied to hold a "rally with burning sacred texts." However, he later apologized to all those who were hurt and offended by that and said that instead of the Quran, the NATO Charter would be lit on fire.

According to the paper, in the meantime, Turkish President Tayyip Recep Erdogan gave the green light to Sweden's accession to NATO, which made the organizer of the rally change his initial plans. He intended to burn the Quran to instigate Turkey to refuse to ratify Sweden’s application to join NATO and thus stop or at least slow down the process of his country's accession to the organization. Under the new circumstances, he decided to protest by burning the NATO Charter.

On Monday, Ankara agreed to lift its veto on Sweden’s admission to NATO following Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s talks with Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and European Council President Charles Michel, which took place on the eve of a NATO summit in Vilnius. Sweden vowed not to support the organizations designated as terrorist by Ankara and provide all possible assistance to Turkey with regard to its European integration.

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