Sweden must ban PKK rallies to enter NATO: Erdoğan

ANKARA

Sweden must no longer allow the demonstrations and activities by the PKK terror organization's members and sympathizers on its soils if it wants to join NATO, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has told the NATO chief with just weeks left to go to the critical alliance summit in Vilnius.

Erdoğan and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg exchanged a phone conversation late on June 25 to discuss the developments in Russia following the 24-hours internal crisis led by the paramilitary Wagner group’s chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, according to a statement issued by the Communication Directorate.

“It was noted that the termination of the tensions in Russia has prevented the occurrence of irrevocable humanitarian tragedies in the Ukrainian field. The wish for the developments in Russia to constitute a new milestone in the path to a just peace in Ukraine was conveyed to NATO Secretary-General Stoltenberg,” read the statement.

Erdoğan had also spoken with Russian President Vladimir Putin over the weekend to call him to act in common sense and inform him that he was ready to engage for a peaceful resolution to the crisis.

Swedish bid on the agenda

Erdoğan and Stoltenberg also discussed Sweden’s NATO membership, the statement said.

“It was stressed that Türkiye maintains its constructive stance regarding Sweden’s membership but that legislative amendments would be meaningless so long as PKK/PYD/YPG supporters organize demonstrations freely in this country,” it said.

Türkiye and two NATO applicants, Sweden and Finland had signed a trilateral agreement to push the Nordic states to increase the level of anti-terror cooperation by extraditing terrorists, disallowing their financial and propaganda activities. Finland joined the security alliance in late March, but Sweden has to do more yet to sit around the same table with allies when they meet in Vilnius for the leaders’ summit on July 11 and 12.

The PKK and other anti-Türkiye groups continue to hold demonstrations and rallies against Türkiye and its leadership. Sweden sees these demonstrations within the boundaries of the freedom of expression.

During the call, Türkiye’s attempt to purchase 40 new F-16s from the United States was also mentioned.

“It was further stressed that the injustices faced within the context of the F-35s and the attempts to associate Türkiye’s requests about the F-16s with Sweden’s membership would harm NATO and its security rather than Türkiye,” read the statement.

Although these are two separate issues, the U.S. Congress tends to link them and condition Türkiye’s approval of Sweden’s accession to their consent for the sale of F-16s.

Stoltenberg, for his part, briefly said on Twitter that he had a good call with President Erdoğan ahead of the NATO summit “where we’ll take important decisions on terrorism and deterrence and defense. We will continue working together on Sweden’s accession to NATO.”