The Turkish top diplomat, Mevlut Cavusoglu, said that the government in Ankara has summoned Sweden’s ambassador to protest against comments from Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallström. The Swedish top diplomat had tweeted on her official account that the “Turkish decision to allow sex with children under 15 must be reversed,” following a controversial ruling by the Turkish constitutional court.
“It is a scandal for a foreign minister (Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom) to post such a tweet based on speculations and false reports. Our embassy will contact her today. We summoned the Swedish ambassador to the ministry. The minister herself had a request to talk with me. I will tell her about this mistake directly on the phone. This is not acceptable. A foreign minister should act responsibly and should not lie. She should not adopt a stance, making accusations against Turkey,” stated Cavusoglu. The comments by Minister Wallstrom were in reference to a decision by Turkey’s constitutional court last month to remove a provision in the penal-code which identifies all sexual acts against children under the age of 15 as “sexual abuse”.