Sweden’s Kurds fear that they may have to pay the price for NATO’s bid when Turkey smokes
By Simon Johnson
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Kurds in Sweden’s large diaspora are worried that they will be a pawn in the negotiations on Stockholm’s ambition to join NATO if the Western world makes concessions to win Turkey’s support.
Sweden, together with Finland, applied for membership in NATO in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and their bid was warmly welcomed as a “historic moment” by the alliance leaders.
But they have faced opposition from Turkey, which has been outraged by what they say is their support for Kurdish militants and arms controls in Ankara during a 2019 invasion of Syria.
“We do not want the Kurds to be on the negotiating table,” said Shiyar Ali, the Scandinavian representative of the predominantly Kurdish regions of northern Syria.
Each offer to join NATO, which is holding a three-day summit this week, requires the support of each of its 30 members. Turkey has been a NATO ally for over 70 years.
Sweden’s 100,000 – strong Kurdish diaspora and Stockholm’s support for Kurdish rights have long been tensions in relations with Ankara.
“Sweden has been a thorn in the side of Turkey and criticized Turkish violations of human rights, there is a strong and vibrant Kurdish diaspora in Sweden, parts of which are sympathetic to the PKK”, Paul Levin, head of the Institute for Turkish Studies at Stockholm University . , sa.
“All of these things face the Turkish perspective on these issues that the PKK and its affiliates are a significant national security threat to Turkey.”
The PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party) has been leading an uprising in Turkey since 1984 in which more than 40,000 people have been killed.
Sweden has long banned the PKK and says that they only provide humanitarian aid to Syria and refugees in the region, mainly through international organizations.
At the same time as the NATO negotiations, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has threatened to launch a new invasion of northern Syria to recapture cities held by the Kurdish-led Syrian democratic forces, supported by Washington.
The Kurdish YPG militia is an important part of the SDF, which controls large parts of northern Syria and is considered by Washington as an important ally against the Islamic State. Ankara sees it as an extension of the militant PKK and labels it a terrorist group, while Western governments do not.
Apart from its anger towards the two Nordic countries, Turkey has long been outraged by other support for the YPG, especially from the United States, France and Germany.
UNSAFE ROAD
All this has worried some Kurds, who fear that they may have to pay the price to calm Turkey and secure Sweden’s place in NATO.
Osman Aytar, an ethnic Kurd, risked a prison sentence fleeing Turkey to Sweden in the 1990s.
“Kurds have been betrayed many times in history,” says Aytar, a 62-year-old associate professor of social work at Mälardalen University in eastern Sweden.
“Perhaps Erdogan is betting that he can invade new parts of Rojava (the predominantly Kurdish regions of northern Syria) and the West will be quiet just because of this NATO membership issue. If the West just closes its eyes, he will be happy.”
The Swedish government declined to comment on ongoing talks with Turkey. Ankara’s embassy in Stockholm also declined to comment. NATO has said that the security concerns raised by Turkey are legitimate.
The complex network of issues has put the Swedish government – admired all over the world for its promotion of human rights and support for minorities – in a tough place.
Just this month, the government survived a no-confidence vote with the help of a former Kurdish peshmerga fighter, who has demanded continued support for Kurds, which further irritates Ankara.
A long and uncertain path to NATO membership would undermine Nordic security and weaken the Alliance’s hand in the Baltic Sea.
But meeting Turkey’s demands – which are still unclear – would damage Sweden’s reputation and could complicate the fight against the Islamic State.
“We are worried that the Kurds will fall victim to politics,” said Ahmed Karamus, Swedish co-chair of the Kurdistan National Congress, a Kurdish umbrella group.
While the Swedish Kurds with whom Reuters spoke are convinced that the government will stand up to Turkey, the negotiations are an uncomfortable reminder that security in the autonomous region depends on the goodwill of others.
“I hope and believe that Sweden will not make concessions that we will be ashamed of later,” said Aytar.
(Reporting by Simon Johnson; Additional reporting by Maya Gebeily in Beirut; Editing by Alison Williams)