STOCKHOLM, Nov 5 (Portal) – Sweden’s new government will distance itself from the Kurdish YPG militia in a bid to win Turkey’s approval to join NATO, Sweden’s foreign minister told Swedish radio on Saturday.
The Syrian Kurdish YPG militia and its political branch PYD are considered by Turkey to be an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which launched an insurgency against Turkey in 1980 and is considered a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union .
Sweden, along with the United States and several other NATO countries, has supported the YPG in its fight against the Islamic State.
But Turkey has vowed to block Sweden’s bid for NATO membership if it doesn’t stop supporting the militia group.
“There is too close a connection between these organizations and the PKK … for it to be good for the relationship between us and Turkey,” Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom told public broadcaster Swedish Radio.
“The primary goal is Sweden’s membership in NATO,” he said.
The move comes just days before Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson is due to travel to Ankara to try to persuade Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan to let Sweden join the military alliance.
As a direct result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Sweden and Finland applied to join NATO earlier this year.
The application was approved by 28 of the 30 NATO countries. The Nordic countries said this week they were optimistic Hungary too would drop its objections.
Reporting by Johan Ahlander Editing by Mark Potter
Our standards: The Thomson Portal Trust Principles.