WASHINGTON (AA) – The US said Monday that an extremist’s burning of a Quran in front of Türkiye’s Embassy in the Swedish capital Stockholm was “deeply disrespectful” but stopped short of condemning it. “Just as the Swedish prime minister said, burning books that are holy to many is a deeply disrespectful act,” US State Depart...
AMSTERDAM (AA) – A far-right Dutch politician, and leader of the Islamophobic group Pegida, tore out pages from a copy of the Quran in The Hague, the administrative capital of the Netherlands, on Sunday. Edwin Wagensveld shared a video of his provocative act on Twitter which took place in front of the parliamentary building in […]
STOCKHOLM (AA) – Sweden has criticized the burning of a copy of the Quran by a Swedish-Danish right-wing extremist in Stockholm, but defended its decision to allow the planned act to go ahead. In a Twitter post on late Saturday, Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said: “Freedom of expression is a fundamental part of democracy. But [&he...
BELGRADE, Serbia (AA) – The EU Special Representative for the Belgrade-Pristina Dialogue has said that Western countries expect more understanding of the European Union’s proposal for normalizing ties between Serbia and Kosovo. Miroslav Lajcak’s remarks came after his meeting with Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti in the Koso...
NICE, France (AA) – A restaurant in Paris has been accused of segregating non-white guests from white ones, local media reported. The CoCo restaurant seated a young customer of Asian origin at a table on the upper floor, as shown by a video the customer made earlier this month and posted on TikTok. When the […]
BELGRADE, Serbia (AA) – Serbia cannot join the European Union before recognizing the independence of its neighbor Kosovo, said Germany’s special envoy to the Western Balkans on Thursday. “Germany has always had a clear stand on the issue that on the normalization process when Serbia decides to join the EU, recognition of Kosovo wil...
BERLIN (AA) – German parliament adopted a resolution Thursday declaring the massacre of Yazidis by the ISIS group a genocide. The resolution, which was initiated by Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s liberal-left coalition and the main opposition Christian Democrats, was unanimously approved by lawmakers. More than 5,000 Yazidis were killed by the...
ANKARA (AA) – The Greek premier dismissed the prospect of war with Türkiye during a speech at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Switzerland’s winter resort of Davos. “We will not go to war with Turkey though we witnessed a lot of tension in the last three years,” Kyriakos Mitsotakis said when asked if […]
DAVOS, Switzerland (AA) – Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto has said that his country is hoping to relieve Türkiye’s security concerns, noting that “the PKK is a forbidden organization both in Sweden and Finland.” On the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, he said that a trilateral working...
ISTANBUL (AA) – US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said that he looked forward to “continued coordination” with Türkiye on various issues, following a meeting with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu in Washington. Noting that they discussed many important issues as part of the US-Türkiye Strategic Mechanism, Blin...
