Turkey airport ad warns travelers of highest ‘rape rate’ in Sweden

ISTANBUL: Turkish airport has warned travellers about the prevalence of rape in Sweden by displaying the headline at the departures area on Friday, which reads.

‘Travel warning – Do you know that Sweden has the highest rape rate worldwide?’

A Turkish official said: “It’s an ad for Gunes newspaper and not an official notice.”

This warning has come a days after the Swedish foreign minister Wallsstrom wrote on Twitter that. “The Turkish decision to allow sex with children under 15 must be reversed. Children need more protection, not less, against violence, sex abuse.”

The allegation regarding child abuse, was also displayed at Vienna International Airport which made
Ankara is angry.

However the statement was removed following harsh criticism, and Ankara expressed its “disappointment and denunciation.”

In Turkey, the age of consent is set as 18, in line with the Civil Code and was not affected by the ruling.

Wallsstrom faced criticism over her remarks.Foreign Minister Çavuşoğlu criticized Wallström’s statement, saying that her remark as ‘unacceptable’, saying Wallstrom should have acted ‘responsibly’.

In response, the Swedish embassy in Turkey posted a statement on its website entitled “misconceptions on rape statistics,” which said that comparing reports of rape in Sweden with reports in other countries with different legal and statistical systems “does not describe reality correctly.”

Expressing its support “of freedom of speech,” the embassy of Sweden in Ankara said it had “no interest” in demanding that the banner be removed.