A few days before Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson travels to Turkey to meet President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the new government accepts the Turkish request to distance itself from Kurdish organizations in Syria in exchange for Sweden and Finland joining NATO.
– There is too close a link between these organizations and the PKK, which is a terrorist organization in the EU, to be good for relations between us and Turkey, says Billström. He believes they are damaging Sweden’s relations with Turkey.
The YPG has long been a close ally of the US and NATO in the fight against IS in Syria, and has long been supported by Sweden as well. The YPG was responsible for most of the successful fight on the ground against the IS.
However, Turkey perceives the YPG and PYD as Kurdish terrorist organizations that are at least as important to fight as IS and asks Sweden to distance itself from them for Turkey to approve its NATO membership application.
