Speaker of GNAT, Mustafa Şentop met with representatives of Romani non-governmental organizations for breakfast at Istanbul Working Office of the Grand National Assembly of Türkiye. Şentop, photographed with Romani citizens, later made statements to members of the press.

Speaker Şentop also made evaluations about the Swedish police allowing Burning of the Holy Qur’an’ in front of the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm and terrorist actions against President Erdoğan and Türkiye.

Expressing that they have been following the developments in Sweden for a long time, Şentop continued his speech as follows:

“Sweden had already allowed and provided a basis for the activities of terrorist organizations, especially the PKK terrorist organization, actions against Türkiye, and acts of hostility towards Muslims and Islam. During the NATO membership process, we had the opportunity to follow these issues with them in closer cooperation. At Madrid Summit, upon the request of Sweden and Finland to NATO membership, a memorandum of understanding was signed with Türkiye on not allowing the activities of terrorist organizations and their anti-Türkiye actions. They made a commitment. Thus, due to this commitment, it was necessary for us to follow the subject much more closely. There are some verbal statements they make, some statements about fulfilling their commitments, but of course these words are not enough. We look at their work, we look at their actions. There has been no development in this regard yet. While we were waiting for this, a very ugly and despicable action took place against our President and the Republic of Türkiye 1 week, 10 days ago. We all reacted very strongly to that.”

Şentop reminded that Swedish Parliament Speaker Andreas Norlen was going to visit Türkiye last week, but he canceled it. Şentop underlined that they have very clear and justified reasons for this and he stated,”‘However, we see that an attitude that will correct this and not allow the actions of terrorist organizations has not yet taken place. They still allow similar actions. Moreover, this time we learned that they allowed an action in the form of burning the Holy Qur’an in front of our Embassy, a provocative action that would provoke the entire Islamic World and Muslims. We expect them to immediately take the necessary measures in this regard and to take measures to prevent such actions.”

Şentop stated that this is a very provocative action not only for Türkiye but also for the entire Islamic World and he said,

“Allowing these by Sweden will show that it is in synergy with the activists in terms of complicity and participation in these hate crimes. I also carry out the Presidency and the term Presidency of the Parliamentary Union of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. I wrote a letter to the heads of parliaments of other Islamic countries on this issue, and had our friends do a study to ensure that they would show the necessary reactions on this issue. In this capacity, I will also make a statement.”