ISTANBUL, June 29. /TASS/. The Swedish authorities are pushing Ankara toward take a tougher position on Stockholm’s bid for NATO membership by actually condoning anti-Islam rallies, complete with desecration of the Quran, a diplomatic source in Turkey told TASS on Thursday.

"Ankara’s approval of Sweden’s NATO membership is itself in question. The alliance’s leadership links any possible progress to a meeting of Turkish, Swedish and Finnish representatives expected in Brussels on July 6, but it also may come into question following the scandalous activity in Stockholm, which was offensive to Ankara. Sweden can hardly expect Turkey to approve its membership bid in such a situation, not only before the NATO summit set to take place in Vilnius on July 11-12 but also in the foreseeable future after the event," the source pointed out.

The Turkish authorities strongly condemned the burning of the Quran in downtown Stockholm on the major Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha. The anti-Islam demonstrations had been authorized by the Swedish police.

Huseyin Bagci, director of Turkey’s Foreign Policy Institute, told TASS earlier that Ankara was unlikely to approve Sweden’s membership bid before the Vilnius summit.

On June 28, 2022, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Finnish President Sauli Niinisto, then-Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg held talks ahead of the annual NATO summit in Madrid. The parties signed a memorandum enabling the accession of Stockholm and Helsinki to NATO. On March 31, 2023, the Turkish parliament passed a protocol approving Finland’s accession to NATO, after which the Nordic country formally joined the North Atlantic Alliance on April 4. However, Turkish lawmakers refused to approve a similar protocol approving Sweden’s NATO membership, demanding that Stockholm implement all provisions of the Madrid memorandum related to fighting terrorism.