ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey has summoned the Danish ambassador in Ankara to express its strong condemnation and protest over recent attacks on the Koran and the Turkish flag, the Foreign Ministry said on Friday.
Last week, a far-right group in Denmark called Patrioterne Gar Live burnt a copy of the Koran as well as a Turkish flag in front of the Turkish embassy in Copenhagen.
During the meeting, the Turkish government urged Danish authorities to take the necessary steps against the perpetrators and measures to prevent such provocations from recurring.
“This act is a clear proof that Islamophobia, xenophobia, discrimination and racism have recently increased in Europe,” a ministry statement said.
There was no immediate response from the Danish foreign ministry to a request for comment on the Turkish foreign ministry’s remarks.
A protest in Stockholm in January by a far-right anti-immigrant Danish/Swedish politician against Islam and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has also heightened tensions between Sweden and Turkey, whose backing Stockholm needs to join the NATO military alliance.
(Reporting by Ece Toksabay, Editing by William Maclean)
