Sweden blows up Turkish “disinformation” when Erdoğan delays NATO accession – POLITICO
Sweden has backed off Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s claims that they are soft on terrorism, as Ankara continues to block the country’s accession to NATO.
Erdoğan maintains Sweden’s and Finland’s accession to the military alliance and claims that the two Nordic countries support the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and its Syrian sister group, the People’s Protection Units (YPG).
“Giving all kinds of support to the terrorist organization PKK / YPG and also asking us for support for NATO membership is, to say the least, inconsistent,” Erdoğan said in a speech on Wednesday.
The Turkish leader also said that Ankara had asked for 30 “terrorists” from Sweden.
Swedish officials have insisted that they are open to dialogue with Ankara. But in an unusually blunt tweet Sweden’s Foreign Minister Ann Linde rejected on Friday the view that her country supports terrorism.
“Due to the widespread misinformation about Sweden and the PKK, we would like to remind you that Olof Palme’s Swedish government was the only one after Turkey to list the PKK as a terrorist organization, as early as 1984,” Linde wrote, noting that the EU “followed suit” in 2002.
Sweden’s position, the minister said, “remains unchanged.”
Current and former officials have indicated that Turkey’s objections may be part of a broader negotiation, as Erdoğan aims to obtain concessions from the United States.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg insisted on Thursday that consensus could still be reached on Stockholm and Helsinki’s membership offers.
“I am convinced that we will come to a speedy decision to welcome both Sweden and Finland to join the NATO family,” he said.