The Turkish government has released a list of five demands to Sweden in order for the country to approve Sweden’s NATO bid, including halting support of groups Turkey considers to be terrorists.
The Turkish Directorate of Communications announced the five points that required action this week in a press release, stating, “The Presidency’s Directorate of Communications indicates that Türkiye expects concrete assurances from Sweden, which supports terrorist organisations, under the collective security principle of NATO.”
In order to get Turkish approval to join Nato, the Turkish government stated that Sweden must stop support of the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the YPG militia, which has ties to the PKK.
Sweden must also stop sending money and arms to the YPG, funds that Turkey believes have also ended up in the hands of the PKK. Along with security guarantees and counter-terrorism cooperation, Turkey has demanded Sweden also lift any bans on weapons sales to Turkey.
'Guesthouses for Terrorist Organisations' – Turkey Opposes Sweden and Finland Joining NATO https://t.co/MZ9Ryuj85Q
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) May 15, 2022
Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde addressed the Turkish accusations on Tuesday saying, “Sweden is a major humanitarian donor to the Syria crisis through global allocations to humanitarian actors.”
“Sweden does not provide targeted support to Syrian Kurds or to the political or military structures in northeastern Syria, but the population in these areas is, of course, taking part in these aid projects,” she added.
Last week, Linde commented on Sweden’s stance on the PKK stating, “Due to the widespread disinformation about Sweden and the PKK, we would like to remind that the Swedish government under Olof Palme was only after Turkey to list the PKK as a terrorist organization, already in 1984.”
“The EU followed suit in 2002 when Anna Lindh was Minister for Foreign Affairs. This stance remains unchanged,” she added.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced his country’s opposition to Sweden and Finland joining NATO soon after both countries announced their intentions to apply to join the alliance.
“We have told our relevant friends we would say `no´ to Finland and Sweden´s entry into NATO, and we will continue on our path like this,” President Erdogan said last week.
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