NATO membership: Swedish Kurds concerned about Ankara's bargaining
A few hours after a meeting of Finnish, Swedish and Turkish officials in Ankara on Wednesday, May 25, Helsinki and Stockholm were still hoping to find common ground so that Turkey would lift its objections to the two Nordic countries' membership in NATO. The meeting was "constructive" and discussions will "continue". But the negotiations could take "weeks" rather than "days," warned Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has made no secret of the fact that his reservations are mainly about Sweden. On May 23, his officials presented a list of demands. The list looked like 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 is insisting that Sweden end its "political support for terrorism," lift its embargo on arms exports to Ankara, in place since 2019, and extradite some 30 people suspected of having links with the PKK.
"We will look at the list presented by Turkey and resolve some ambiguities," said the Swedish Social Democrat Prime Minister, Magdalena Andersson. Maintaining that Sweden "does 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 [as early as 1984]."
Her government is facing increasing pressure not to give in to Ankara's "blackmail." On Wednesday, seventeen prominent figures, including the presidents of the writers', playwrights' and journalists' unions, as well as representatives of Reporters Without Borders and the Pen Association, published an op-ed urging the Swedish government not to "fall into Erdogan's trap." According to them, "under no circumstances can Sweden hand over intellectuals to a regime that is trying to silence its critics far beyond the Swedish borders."
"He's a demagogue who is fighting for his survival. If we start giving in to him, he'll make other demands," says Kurdo Baksi, a journalist of Kurdish origin and a signatory of the petition. He talks about the unease in the Kurdish community in Sweden where, according to estimates, there are around 100,000 Kurds from Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Syria and Lebanon. "Many feel that the Swedish government is not being firm enough with Turkey. Those who are the subject of extradition requests are particularly concerned," says Baksi.
Very active diaspora
If Sweden is now in Ankara's sights, it's because it has long been "a refuge for political refugees, especially for Turks and Kurds who fled after the military coup in 1980 and then following the violence with the PKK in the 1990s," explains Paul Levin, a researcher at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs in Stockholm and an expert on Turkey. "The Kurdish diaspora is very active and politically mobilized," he says, adding that it has "strong sympathy among Swedes, particularly in the Social Democratic Party, but also in more left-wing groups and the Liberal Party."
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