Sweden’s prime minister today condemned the action of left-wing MPs who were photographed with the flag of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), as Stockholm tries to persuade Turkey to join NATO.
“The PKK is on the list of terrorist organizations, not only in Sweden but also in the EU, and posing with this kind of flag is completely inappropriate,” Magdalena Andersson said in an interview with Swedish news agency TT.
Sweden and Finland signed last Tuesday an agreement with Ankara to lift the Turkish veto on the two Nordic countries joining the Alliance.
The text of the agreement confirms that Stockholm and Helsinki consider the PKK a terrorist organization and that the two Nordic countries pledge not to support various groups that Ankara considers hostile, including the Kurdish YPG armed movement in Syria.
Sweden and Finland also undertake to study “immediately and thoroughly” Turkish extradition requests.
The deal has sparked concern among Sweden’s large Kurdish community and criticism from Sweden’s left-wing parties, which accuse the government of making too many concessions to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The action by several left-wing MPs took place yesterday, Tuesday, during a week of summer schools for Swedish political parties on the island of Gotland, where they were seen posing with flags of the PKK, as well as the YPG and the Kurdish women’s armed movement YPJ.
Lawmaker Lorina Delgado Varas, one of those photographed with the flags, condemned Stockholm’s hypocrisy towards Kurdish groups in Syria who have fought the Islamic State jihadist group.
“Now they are looking away, to get closer to dictator Erdoğan. All this to join NATO,” he tweeted.
Hostile to NATO membership, the Left Party (ex-communist) supports the Anderson government in Parliament, without being a member of the government.
While Turkey has given the green light to the first phase of Sweden and Finland’s membership application, the Turkish parliament must ratify this membership.
Ankara has warned that this ratification will depend on compliance with commitments made by Stockholm and Helsinki.
President Erdogan said last week that Sweden had “promised” to extradite 73 “terrorists” living on its soil and wanted by Ankara, even though there is no such commitment in the deal signed on the sidelines of a NATO summit in Madrid.
In fact, earlier today Turkey sent new requests to Sweden and Finland to extradite people Ankara considers terrorists, Turkish Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said.
SOURCE: APE-ME
Source: Capital
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