Turkish citizens furious over the burning of the Quran by a right-wing politician in Sweden are holding a rally in Istanbul on Saturday.
ADVERTISEMENTA protest erupted in front of the Swedish consulate in Istanbul on Saturday in response to a right-wing politician who earlier set fire to the Quran at a rally in Stockholm.
The Quran is regarded as the word of God in Islam, and any attack on it is deeply offensive to Muslim faithful.
Turkey called it a 'vile' act.
What has upset Turkey just as much is that Swedish authorities apparently allowed Rasmus Paludan to burn the Quran while the police and media looked on.
The Scandinavian country has very strong free speech laws.
Ankara has now cancelled a visit by the Swedish defence minister that was aimed at helping to remove Turkey's objections to the country joining the NATO military alliance along with Finland.
But there are also those in Sweden who don't want the country to join anyway.
A few hours after the right-wing provocation, an anti-NATO protest also took place in Stockholm.
Some of the demonstrators were Kurdish refugees and the protest was organised by the Kurdish Democratic Society Centre.
Turkey considers a number of them terrorists and has called on Sweden to stop protecting them as the price of Ankara's blessing for acceptance into NATO.