Since May, Ankara has blocked Sweden’s – like Finland’s – entry into NATO and has accused Stockholm of harboring PKK members on its territory.
Turkey is “unable” to ratify Sweden’s NATO membership as it is, said this Saturday, January 14, Ibrahim Kalin, close adviser to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, after a new incident involving it week happened. “We are unable to send the law to Parliament for ratification, we have a real problem on this issue,” he assured, reiterating that MPs would risk rejecting it.
Ankara on Thursday condemned a video montage produced by a group close to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Sweden showing President Erdogan being hanged and treated as a “dictator”. The Swedish Ambassador in Ankara was summoned by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
A doll of the Turkish president was found hanging on a bridge in Stockholm. TWITTER @REALROJKOM / Portal
This new incident comes at a time when Turkey has been blocking Sweden’s – like Finland’s – entry into NATO since May, accusing them of harboring members of the PKK and organizations allied to it on their territory as terrorists. “We’ve been in this process for six or seven months and it’s not good for Sweden to appear in that light. We want to move forward and make progress, but if these types of incidents continue it will slow down the process.”
“Clear Message”
For Ibrahim Kalin, Sweden must send “a clear message” about the attitude of PKK members on its soil. He nevertheless acknowledged that the new Swedish government had taken several important steps, including the “much appreciated” visit by the Swedish prime minister to Ankara shortly after he took office, and “amending the constitution, a positive step”. But it will still be necessary to wait “six months” before the new related laws are written and approved by Parliament, he noted.
In addition, Ibrahim Kalin reiterated that Turkey “is not demanding anything from Sweden or Finland that is not in line with their law: we are very realistic”. In particular, the Turkish government has demanded the expulsion of several members of the PKK and the Feto movement (an acronym used by Ankara to denote the movement of preacher Fethullah Gülen, ed. ed.) accused of organizing the coup attempt from 2016 to have stoked.
SEE ALSO – NATO: Turkey “wants things we can’t give it,” stresses Swedish Prime Minister