Sweden officially announces it no longer supports Kurdish militias in Syria
The Sweden’s Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom said that his country’s new government no longer calls for unconditional support for the Kurdish militias in Syria – the People’s Protection Units (YPG) and the Democratic Union Party (PYD).
The minister added, in an interview with Swedish Radio on Saturday, on the eve of his country’s Prime Minister Ulf Christerson’s visit to Ankara on November 8, who will hold negotiations with the Turkish side on the Sweden’s accession to NATO: “There are close contacts and relations between these two organizations and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, which is on the list of the European Union”, to terrorist organizations.
We’re interested in the absence of ambiguous contacts with these two organizations on the part of the kingdom.
It is important for Sweden to keep a distance with these organizations… We need good relations with Türkiye”.
It is noteworthy that the People’s Protection Units (YPG) are Kurdish armed factions not recognized by the Syrian government, and their forces constitute the backbone of the Syria Democratic Forces (SDF), and they enjoy US military support.
These units were established in 2014 as the armed wing of the Kurdistan Democratic Union Party.
