Türkiye’s Embassy in Finland’s capital was attacked by masked assailants with a smoke grenade and paint, sources said Wednesday.
Embassy sources said the attackers arrived at the scene in the Finnish capital Helsinki on rental bicycles.
The city police department confirmed that law enforcement and rescue teams came to the building upon reports of smoke rising from the embassy grounds.
Following the attack, Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen said on X that she was “saddened by the vandalism of the Turkish Embassy.”
“Hostile acts against diplomatic missions are reprehensible. The police are investigating; I believe that we will soon get more information about what happened,” she added.
Authorities have initiated an investigation into the attack.
Back in March, Türkiye approved Finland’s NATO accession bid, becoming the last nation after Hungary to greenlight the Nordic country’s membership in the military bloc.
Sweden and Finland abandoned decades of nonalignment and applied to join NATO in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. All NATO members, except Türkiye and Hungary, have ratified their accession, but unanimity is required. Türkiye and Hungary still have reservations about Sweden’s accession and said will approve it after their concerns are addressed.
Source : Daily Sabah