Erdogan: Relations between Türkiye and Sweden may become tenser if Stockholm doesn’t stop the provocations of the PKK

The Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that relations between Türkiye and Sweden may become tenser if the Stockholm authorities don’t stop the provocations of the PKK organization inside its territory.

This came in a speech he delivered, on Sunday, during a youth event organized by the Justice and Development Party in Mugla Province, in the southwest of the country.

Erdogan added: “We see PKK demonstrations in the streets of Sweden, which we warn in this regard, but unfortunately Stockholm didn’t stop these demonstrations”.

Regarding the membership of Sweden and Finland in NATO, Erdogan said: “We said that they should hand us about 130 terrorists to us in order for us to approve their membership in our parliament, but they didn’t do so”.

The Turkish president stated that the Swedish court refused to extradite Bulent Kenesh, who is in the wanted list of Ankara on charges of being member of Gulen organization.

Erdogan pointed out that the Turkish Parliament Speaker, Mustafa Sentop, informed his Swedish counterpart of the cancellation of the visit, which the latter was planning to make to Ankara soon, in order to express Türkiye’s dissatisfaction with the Swedish authorities’ disregard for the provocations of the terrorist PKK.

He added, “The organization isn’t only active in Sweden, but also organizes demonstrations in Germany and France… Türkiye must take its positions towards these countries”.

On June 28, 2022, Türkiye, Sweden and Finland signed a tripartite memorandum of understanding regarding the accession of the latter two countries to NATO, on the sidelines of the Alliance Leaders Summit, in the Spanish capital, Madrid.

The memorandum came after the two European countries pledged to respond to Ankara’s demands regarding cooperation in fighting against terrorism.

Last Thursday, a number of supporters of the organization gathered in front of the historic municipal building in Stockholm, and hung a doll depicting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on a pole near the building.

Accounts linked to the PKK organization posted a video on social media showing the moments when the doll was suspended from its feet, and the video was appended with threatening phrases in the Turkish language targeting Türkiye and President Erdogan.

On the same day, the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned Stockholm’s ambassador to Ankara and informed him of its rejection of the propaganda of supporters of the PKK terrorist organization in Sweden that targeted Türkiye and its president.