Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu on Thursday said Norway banned a Quran-burning protest that was planned for Friday, TASS reports.
"Upon obtaining information that a protest to burn our holy book, the Quran, was planned to take place in Norway tomorrow, we summoned the Norwegian ambassador in Ankara to the ministry. They [the government of Norway] revoked permission [to hold the protest]," the Turkish minister said at a meeting with the youth in Ankara.
Earlier it was reported that the Norwegian ambassador to Turkey was summoned to the Turkish Foreign Ministry and issued a formal protest over the planned protest to burn a copy of the Quran near the Turkish embassy in Oslo. He was also told that Ankara expects Norway to ban the protest.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry "condemned and strongly protested against the approach of the Norwegian government that was in no way preventing the provocative action, which is considered a hate crime." The ministry stated that "such behavior is unacceptable."
Earlier, a major scandal broke out between Turkey and Sweden because of the burning of a copy of the Quran near the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm. Similar protests were held in some other countries.
Turkey responded by saying it won’t approve Sweden’s application to join NATO.