Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billström has distanced the Swedish government from the Kurdish-Syrian militias People’s Protection Units (YPG) and the Democratic Union Party (PYD), considering both organizations «too close» to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), an armed organization considered terrorist by Turkey.
«There is too close a connection between these organizations and the PKK, an organization considered terrorist by the EU to be good for our relationship with Turkey,» Billström explained in statements to Swedish public television STV.
«Sweden should not be a place where it is easy to finance terrorism (…). Above all, it is about combating terrorism and all its activities on Swedish soil, including fundraising. Sweden must be a place against terrorism in any form,» he added.
However, for PYD leader Salih Muslim, these statements do not mean any change in practice. «We have never had direct relations as a party with the Swedish government. Only with Swedish organizations,» he said in statements to the Swedish news agency TT.
«I think it is very difficult for Sweden to ignore its principles on Human Rights in case of a Turkish intervention,» the Kurdish leader has argued. «This is just a game. Nothing more,» he reiterated.
These statements come on the eve of the trip to Ankara of the Swedish Prime Minister, Ulf Kristersson, who intends to convince the Turkish leader, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to endorse the accession of Sweden and Finland to NATO. Turkey has expressed its reluctance in this regard on the grounds that Sweden harbors Kurdish groups it considers terrorists, so the parties have signed an agreement that should placate Turkey.
