The interview was “constructive” and the discussion goes ” continue “. A few hours after the meeting of representatives of the Finnish, Swedish and Turkish governments in Ankara on Wednesday May 25, Helsinki and Stockholm still hoped to find common ground for Turkey to lift its objections to the accession of the two Nordic countries to the EU. NATO. But negotiations could take ” weeks “ rather than “days”, warned Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has made no secret that his reservations mainly concern Sweden. On May 23, his services presented a list of demands in the form of an indictment against Stockholm, accused of financing and arming the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and its Syrian branch, the People’s Protection Units (YPG) . Turkey demands that Sweden end his “political support for terrorism”, lifts the embargo it has imposed since 2019 on arms exports to Ankara and extradites around thirty people suspected of having links with the PKK.
“We will look at the list presented by Turkey and resolve some ambiguities,” reacted the Swedish Social Democratic Prime Minister, Magdalena Andersson. Claiming that Sweden “did not send money or weapons to terrorist organizations”, she recalled that the Scandinavian kingdom had been one of the first countries (…) to classify the PKK as a terrorist organization [dès 1984] “.
His government faces increasing pressure not to give in to the ” blackmail “ from Ankara. On Wednesday, seventeen personalities, including the presidents of writers’, playwrights’ and journalists’ unions as well as representatives of Reporters Without Borders and the Pen association, published a column, urging not to “falling into Erdogan’s trap”. According to them, “Under no circumstances can Sweden hand over intellectuals to a regime that tries to silence its critics far beyond Swedish borders.”
“He is a demagogue who is fighting for his survival. If we start giving in to him, then he will make other demands,” comments Kurdo Baksi, journalist of Kurdish origin and signatory of the tribune. He expresses the malaise in the Kurdish community in Sweden. According to estimates, they would be around 100,000, originating from Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Syria and Lebanon. “Many find that the Swedish government is not firm enough towards Turkey and those who are the subject of an extradition request are particularly worried”, says Mr. Baksi.
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