This is how the government has tried to convince Turkey on the NATO issue

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This is how the government has tried to convince Turkey

MADRID / STOCKHOLM. Sweden’s alleged connection to the PKK and other Kurdish organizations has been at the heart of Turkey’s NATO blockade.

Sources with transparency tell Aftonbladet that the government during the ongoing NATO negotiations worked methodically to dismiss the connections.

This includes refuting incorrect information about Swedish-made weapons in northern Syria and emphasizing that the purpose of certain Kurdish contacts has been to assist in the deportation of IS women.

The meetings between Turkey and Sweden have intensified as the NATO summit in Madrid approaches. This weekend, Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke by telephone – today they are expected to meet physically for the first time since the NATO blockade began.

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Turkey has put forward a number of demands to approve Sweden’s application to the Defense Alliance. This weekend it boiled down to a collective request:

– Turkey expects a clear Swedish and Finnish stance against the Kurdish guerrilla organization PKK and the Syrian-Kurdish party PYD and its armed branch YPG, said Erdogan’s adviser Ibrahim Kalin according to the English-speaking Turkish government body Daily Sabah.

Rejected pictures

Aftonbladet can show through sources with insight that Sweden during the negotiations with Turkey and NATO has methodically worked to show that they take Turkey’s concerns about terrorism from the Kurdish groups seriously. Among other things, it has been emphasized that:

  • The government took the unusual step of issuing an updated foreign declaration to send a signal to Turkey, including that it is opening up for arms exports. In the same context, it was mentioned that a new terrorism legislation will enter into force on 1 July.
  • The government has worked to explain to Turkey that some of the country’s proposals are beyond what is possible under Swedish law, and instead the Swedish side has put forward some concrete proposals to meet Turkey’s demands, including in the field of intelligence.
  • The government has explained the question of Swedish contacts with Kurdish organizations in northern Syria that it was about consular reasons, in order to be able to fly out about 40 children and about 20 women from different camps where approvals from local rulers were required for each individual. groupings.
  • The government has tried to dismiss pictures of alleged Swedish-made weapons in northern Syria that have been published in the media. According to experts who examined the pictures, it is not a question of weapons made in Sweden or sent from Sweden. According to information, this is a model of armored shot AT4 that has not been manufactured in Sweden.

    • Magdalena Andersson hopeful

    The meeting between Sweden, Finland and Turkey will take place in Madrid this afternoon. Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson was far more hopeful than before when she met the press after a meeting with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in Brussels yesterday.

    Earlier today, representatives of Sweden, Finland and Turkey met for new talks. I hope that the dialogue can be concluded in the near future, hopefully already before this week’s NATO meeting. It would make it possible to proceed with our countries’ applications, something that would be good news for Sweden, Finland and NATO, she said according to TT.

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