Sweden to distance itself from PYD ahead of Swedish visit to Turkey

Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom told the Swedish Radio that Sweden will now distance itself from the PYD.

Kurdistan 24 2022/11/05 21:17

Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom (Photo: AFP 2022 / GEORGES GOBET).

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) - The Swedish government will distance itself from the Democratic Union Party (PYD) since it is linked to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), the Swedish FM told Swedish media ahead of a visit by Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson to Turkey on Tuesday.

Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom told the Swedish Radio that Sweden will now distance itself from the PYD and the People's Protection Units (YPG) since they are too close to the PKK.

The Swedish FM Billstrom also distanced himself of politicians of the Left Party that allegedly posed with PKK flags in the Council Hall in Malmö.

"Serious and unacceptable. PKK is a terrorist organisation and this kind of behavior does not belong in a democracy," the Swedish FM said.

However, Salih Muslim, a senior PYD official told the TT news agency that this statement doesn't change much. "As a party, we never had direct relations with the Swedish government, only Swedish organizations."

"I find it very difficult to see that Sweden would ignore its human right principles in the event of a Turkish intervention," he said.

Turkish state broadcaster TRT World reported that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has told NATO head Jens Stoltenberg on Friday that "the steps to be taken by Sweden and Finland would determine how fast the approval process... would go and when it would be concluded."

Sweden and Finland have applied to be member of NATO after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

However, so far NATO-members Turkey and Hungary have not approved Sweden and Finland's membership, while the rest of the alliance members have strongly backed Sweden and Finland.