Swedish Defense Minister Pal Jonson said he is planning to visit Türkiye, amid ongoing tensions between the two countries over Stockholm's failure to relieve Ankara's concerns about terrorist groups. The visit to Ankara is planned for next week, Jonson told Swedish broadcaster SVT on Thursday in Stockholm. His Turkish counterpart Hulusi Akar confirmed the schedule on Wednesday, according to state-affiliated Anadolu Agency (AA).
Tensions between Stockholm and Ankara rose last week following a controversial protest by PKK/YPG terrorist sympathizers, in which an effigy of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was hanged from its feet in Stockholm.
Türkiye strongly condemned the incident and canceled a visit by the Swedish Parliamentary Speaker Andreas Norlen to Ankara.
Sweden and neighboring Finland applied for NATO membership in May last year in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. With all 30 NATO members needed ratify a bid for approval, only Türkiye and Hungary are yet to approve the proposed expansion.
Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban promised in November that ratification should be on the parliamentary agenda as soon as possible.
For the past week, Sweden has been drawing Türkiye’s ire by failing to take legal steps after a group of PKK terrorist supporters hung an effigy of Erdoğan in the capital during a provocative rally, which many officials condemned as "racist propaganda" and argued that it was a "concrete display" of Sweden’s failure to adhere to its NATO deal.
The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the European Union, the U.K. and the United States and is responsible for the deaths of 40,000 people, including women, children and infants.
Since officially applying for membership in May 2022, spurred by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Sweden and Finland have been striving and struggling to secure Türkiye’s approval for joining the bloc. The Turkish government is objecting to their accession on the grounds of security concerns, namely "harboring and tolerating" terrorist groups like the PKK and the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ).
A memorandum of understanding (MoU) the sides inked at a NATO summit in Madrid stipulates that the two countries take concrete steps to address the said concerns, increase their crackdown on terrorist organizations like the PKK and FETÖ and deport people suspected of terrorism-related crimes.
Türkiye has provided a list of wanted individuals to Sweden and expects the Scandinavian nation to take swift action to show that its demands are being met.
To garner Ankara’s hard-earned approval, Stockholm extradited three people, including a PKK terrorist member, to Türkiye in early December 2022. Ankara welcomed the development but said it "wasn’t enough" for a green light. As of the new year, Sweden has taken into effect a constitutional amendment that enables "greater possibilities to make use of legal means to limit freedom of association for groups that engage in, or support terrorism." The country is also expected to implement further amendments for improving counter-terrorism efforts on July 1.
Türkiye has praised these steps taken by Sweden and some others by Finland but says the countries need to do more, particularly in the wake of the provocative demonstration from PKK supporters directly threatening the Turkish president and another court ruling against the extradition of four other suspected terrorists.