A Turkish employee was seriously injured in an armed robbery on Tuesday against the Swedish honorary consulate in the western province of Izmir, the perpetrator of which was arrested, according to officials and media. The governor’s office said the attack was carried out by a “mentally unbalanced” person in Konak district of Izmir at 9:45 a.m. He didn’t mention the consulate.
The attack took place in front of Sweden’s honorary consulate, private broadcaster NTV reported. The injured woman, who worked there as a secretary, is in critical condition. Turkish authorities have arrested the attacker and opened an investigation, the governor’s office said. Honorary consulates represent the interests of their nationals abroad but are not headed by professional diplomats.
This attack comes as Sweden is caught in a diplomatic crisis with several Muslim states which accuse it of having authorized desecrations of the Koran on its soil. On Monday, two men set fire to a copy of the holy book of Muslims in front of Parliament in Stockholm. At the end of June, these same two men burned a few pages of the Koran in front of the largest mosque in the Swedish capital, and on July 20, they desecrated this text, without burning it, in front of the Iraqi embassy. Sweden condemns these desecrations, while defending the constitutional right to freedom of expression. She raised her anti-terrorism alert, admitting that these destructions of the Koran “have increased the risks for Sweden” and the Swedes.
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