Sweden not funding or arming ‘terrorist organisations’, PM tells Turkey

Sweden does not fund or arm terrorist organisations, Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson said Wednesday, refuting Turkish claims and opposition to its NATO bid over its support for Kurdish militant groups.

“We are not sending money to terrorist organisations, of course, nor any weapons,” Andersson told a Stockholm press conference.

Her remarks came as Finnish and Swedish delegations began discussions with Ankara on Wednesday, which Andersson said would provide an opportunity to clear up what she said was “confusion” circulating about Swedish support for different groups.

Turkey has opposed the applications of Sweden and neighbouring Finland, in particular Sweden, over what it considers leniency toward Kurdish militant groups in the Nordic countries.

Stockholm and Helsinki submitted their bids to join NATO last week, reversing decades of military non-alignment, after political and public support for membership soared following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

A membership bid must be unanimously approved and many of the alliance’s 30 members were quick to welcome them.

Turkey has, however, accused Sweden and Finland of acting as hotbeds for terrorist groups and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has insisted Ankara will not approve the two countries’ bids.

Turkey’s presidency on Monday published a list of five demands for Sweden, including calls for an end to funding and supplying arms to Kurdish groups in Syria.

The two Nordic countries have also failed to respond positively to Turkey’s 33 extradition requests over the past five years, Turkish justice ministry sources told the official Anadolu news agency last week.

The agency reported Turkey wanted individuals who were accused of having links to Kurdish militants or of belonging to a movement blamed for the 2016 attempted overthrow of Erdogan.

Turkey has rebuked Stockholm especially for showing what it describes as leniency towards the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

Turkish soldier killed in northern Iraq

Istanbul (AFP) May 26, 2022 –
A Turkish soldier was killed Thursday during a military operation against Kurdish militants in the north of Iraq, Turkey’s defence ministry said.

That brings the number of Turkish soldiers killed in the region to six since Tuesday.

Turkey’s official news agency Anadolu said the Turkish soldiers had clashed with fighters from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which Ankara and its Western allies say is a terrorist organisation.

The PKK has training camps and bases in autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan and has been waging an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984, a conflict that has killed 40,000 people, many of them civilians.

Ankara has launched a series of operations against PKK fighters in Iraq and Syria, the latest one in northern Iraq beginning in April.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday that Turkey would soon launch a new military operation into northern Syria which he said was designed to create a 30-kilometre (19-mile) “security zone” along their border.

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Turkey’s Erdogan conditions support for Nordic nations’ NATO bids


Istanbul (AFP) May 21, 2022


President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday said Turkey would not look “positively” on Sweden and Finland’s NATO bids unless its terror-related concerns were addressed, despite broad support from other allies including the United States.

Turkey has long accused Nordic countries, in particular Sweden which has a strong Turkish immigrant community, of harbouring outlawed Kurdish militants as well as supporters of Fethullah Gulen, the US-based preacher wanted over the failed 2016 coup.

Erdogan’s thr … read more