Sweden does not make concessions to Turkey for NATO membership
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The dialogue with Turkey on agreeing to Sweden’s accession to NATO turned out to be fruitless, Swedish Permanent Representative to the EU Lars Danielsson said on January 9. A day earlier, on January 8, Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson announced that Sweden would not make further concessions to Turkey regarding the extradition of Kurds and individuals associated with the preacher Fethullah Gülen, whom Ankara considers terrorists. The premier named changes in the anti-terrorist legislation as fulfilled conditions for Turkey.
On January 8, Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto announced that he would not pursue NATO membership separately from Sweden. To join the bloc, all of its 30 member countries must ratify the relevant protocol. 28 countries except Turkey and Hungary have already done so, but only Turkey has put forward conditions that include the extradition of members of Kurdish organizations and Gülen supporters (they are accused of attempting a coup in 2016). At the same time, on June 28, 2022, during the NATO summit, both Scandinavian countries promised in a special memorandum not to support the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), the Kurdish YPG / YPD formations in northern Syria and the Gülen organization, but only the PKK was named terrorist in the document.
On November 8, Kristersson met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, following the talks, the Swedish prime minister confirmed that Sweden will fulfill the memorandum signed with Turkey in the summer on countering the PKK and “will not maintain any dialogues with terrorist groups.” On November 5, Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billström told Swedish Radio that Stockholm would also distance itself from the YPG, drawing criticism from the Social Democrats who previously headed the government.
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