President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reiterated Türkiye's concerns about the rise of anti-Muslim hatred in the West, as he urged countries to take action against hate crimes, Trend reports citing Daily Sabah.
Speaking at an iftar gathering, a dinner to mark the breaking of the daily fast, with ambassadors in the capital Ankara, Erdogan said the European Union continues to be Türkiye's strategic partner, but Ankara has concerns about the rise of anti-Muslim sentiment and lack of concrete action by relevant authorities.
"The attacks on the Quran are a hate crime. Quran burning acts cannot be authorized under the scope of freedom of expression," the president said, adding that such shameful acts do not only anger 2 billion Muslims, but also angers them and it is about time to stop them.
Earlier on Tuesday a Swedish court overturned a police decision to ban two Quran-burning protests, despite global condemnation over prior incidents.
The burning of Islam's holy book outside Türkiye's embassy in Stockholm in January angered the Muslim world, sparking weeks of protests and calls for a boycott of Swedish goods, and holding up Sweden's NATO membership bid.
Sweden's Supreme Administrative Court overturned a police decision to ban two subsequent Quran-burning protests in February, saying security risk concerns were not enough to limit the right to demonstrate.
The "police authority did not have sufficient support for its decisions," said Judge Eva-Lotta Hedin in a statement.
Swedish police had refused to authorize the Quran burnings outside the Turkish and Iraqi embassies in Stockholm in February saying that the January protest had made Sweden "a higher priority target for attacks."
Türkiye took particular offense that the police had authorized the demonstration. Ankara has blocked Sweden's NATO bid because Stockholm failed to crack down on the PKK terrorist group and its members in the country.
The order that confines the fate of humanity to the say of five countries "is not sustainable", said the Turkish president on Tuesday, urging for an "inclusive and encompassing" reform to the U.N. Security Council.
"The current order, which traps the fate of humanity between the lips of 5 countries, is not sustainable. There is an urgent need for the UNSC to be reformed with an inclusive and encompassing understanding," Erdogan said.
He said Türkiye is now "harvesting the gains" of its entrepreneurial and humanitarian foreign policy, with several countries rushing to extend help to Türkiye after the Feb. 6 earthquakes in country's south.
Regarding Russia's war on Ukraine, Erdoğan voiced belief in the possibility "to maintain a fair peace that will allow both sides to get an honorable exit, and that will take our region out of the maelstrom it has been dragged into."
Türkiye is aware of the "word games, diplomatic, and military cunnings" of terror groups, Erdogan said, and affirmed that his country is closely following them.
"Just as we do not consent to our country being surrounded by a terror corridor, we will certainly not allow further attempts," he added.