During his visit to Turkey on Tuesday, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristerson promised a tougher stance in the fight against crime and terrorism.
Christerson wants to get Turkey’s support so that Finland and Sweden can join NATO.
With the onset of the repeated Russian invasion of Ukraine, Finland and Sweden have decided to abandon their long-standing neutrality policy and have decided to join NATO. Stockholm and Helsinki hoped that the process of joining the alliance would proceed quickly, but Turkey slowed it down.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused the two countries of hosting fighters from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), claiming to support terrorism.
At a NATO summit in June, Finland and Sweden pledged not to support Kurdish groups in Syria that Turkey considers linked to the PKK and agreed to lift an arms embargo imposed on Ankara following the Turkish offensive in northern Syria. in 2019. The two countries also pledged to deal with the extradition of fugitives from Ankara and to exchange information.
“I think the new government will take an even tougher approach to Sweden’s request [pievienoties] Born, “Christerson told reporters in Ankara.
“One of the main priorities of this government is the fight against crime, the fight against organized crime, the fight against the links between organized crime and terrorism,” said the Swedish Prime Minister during a visit to the Turkish parliament.
Kristerson will also meet Erdogan.
Swedish Foreign Minister Túbias Billström announced on Saturday that the new Swedish government will distance itself from the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) to win Turkey’s support for the country’s NATO membership.
The Syrian Kurdish National Guard YPG and its political wing, the Party of Democratic Unity (PYD) are considered an offshoot of the Turkish Kurdish armed separatist group, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
Since 1984, the PKK has been campaigning for the establishment of an independent Kurdistan state in Kurdish populated areas in Turkey. This conflict caused a total of around 45,000 victims. Similar to Turkey, both the United States and the European Union (EU) view the PKK as a terrorist organization.
However, Sweden, like the United States and many other NATO members, has provided support to the YPG in the fight against the terrorist group “Islamic State”.
Turkey has threatened to block Sweden’s entry into NATO if it does not stop supporting the YPG.
Turkey and Hungary are the last two of NATO’s 30 members that have yet to ratify the accession protocols for Finland and Sweden to join the alliance.
This week Finland and Sweden expressed optimism that Hungary would also lift its objections.
“Sweden wants to join NATO to increase its own security, but Sweden also wants to be a security provider to others,” Christerson said.
