Find your favorites in your Independent Premium section, my profile
Sweden still has “many steps to take” to get Turkey’s approval for its NATO bid, a senior Turkish official said Tuesday as Sweden’s new prime minister traveled to Ankara in hopes that his country’s army alliance club would prevent it.
Sweden and Finland abandoned their former army non-alignment and joined the NATO club after Russian forces invaded Ukraine in February, fearing Russian President Vladimir Putin would attack them.
But Turkey, which joined NATO in 1952, has yet to approve membership, requiring unanimous approval from the alliance’s existing members. Turkey accused Sweden, and to a lesser extent Finland, of ignoring its security concerns.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government is urging either country to crack down on Americans it considers terrorists, adding supporters of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, and whom the government suspects orchestrated a failed coup in Turkey in 2016.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson met Turkish parliament speaker Mustafa Sentop on Tuesday before being greeted with an official rite at Erdogan’s presidential palace, where two of them discussed Sweden’s NATO membership.
Turkey has also called for the lifting of the arms embargo imposed following its 2019 incursion into northern Syria to combat Kurdish militants. Sweden announced last month that it would end the embargo.
Sentop said the Turkish parliament welcomed Sweden’s resolution to remove restrictions on the defense industry, but said teams Turkey considers terrorists were still conducting “propaganda, financing and recruitment activities” in Sweden.
“Nothing has been done in our extradition requests,” Sentop added.
Kristersson wrote Monday on Facebook that “we will do much more in Sweden through a new law that provides absolutely new opportunities to end involvement in terrorist organizations. “
Sweden’s new center-right government is taking a harder line only towards the PKK, but also towards the Syrian Kurdish defence force YPG and its political wing, the PYD. Turkey considers the YPG to be the Syrian arm of the PKK.
Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billström told Swedish radio that there were close ties between the PKK and the YPG/PYD, so Sweden would “keep its distance” from Syrian teams to damage relations with Turkey.
Members of Sweden’s past Social Democrats criticized the comments. Former Justice Minister Morgan Johansson described the new handling of the NATO accession procedure as “worrying and acquiescent. “
Sweden’s Kurds were also critical. Kurdish Baksi, a Kurd who has lived in Sweden for decades, called Billström’s remarks disrespectful, given the sacrifices made by Syrian Kurds in the fight against the Islamic State group.
Around 100,000 Kurds in Sweden, while Finland is home to 15,000 Kurds.
In Syria, PYD spokesman Sama Bakdash accused Turkey of supporting “terrorist factions” in Syria.
“We believe that the Swedish government’s submission to Turkish blackmail contradicts the principles and morals of Swedish society and the humanitarian attitudes that characterize Sweden,” he said.
All 30 NATO member countries will have to officially ratify the accession protocol of Finland and Sweden to join the alliance. Only the Turkish and Hungarian parliaments have yet to do so.
Last week, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg visited Turkey and suggested the country lift its reserves, insisting that Nordic neighbors had done enough to address Ankara’s concerns.
“The two countries have taken a number of measures, but it is difficult to say that they have fulfilled their commitments at this stage,” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu was quoted as saying by state-run Anadolu Agency on Monday.
___
Karl Ritter in Stockholm, Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark and Hogir Al Abdo in Raqqa, Syria contributed to this report.
___
Follow NATO AP in https://apnews. com/hub/nato
Want to bookmark your favorite articles and stories to read or refer to later?Start your Independent Premium Club today.