Türkiye has the right to defend itself against terrorism, Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom said Thursday.
Billström, in his statement to the Dagens Nyheter newspaper published in his country, commented on the "Operation Claw-Sword" launched by Türkiye to end terrorism in northern Iraq and northern Syria.
"Every country has the right to defend itself against terrorism, and this right includes Türkiye. The fight against the terrorist organization Daesh in the region is important, but Türkiye is a country that has been targeted for years and has legitimate reasons to defend itself against terrorism. The Swedish government also believes that this defense should be done moderately," he said.
Emphasizing that he trusts the Turkish government's statement that the terrorist group PKK and its Syrian offshoot YPG are behind the attack in Istanbul, Billström noted that he does not trust the terrorist group's statements.
Billström expressed that he feels progress has been made in the NATO membership talks with Türkiye.
Emphasizing that there is a serious security problem in the world, Billström said that delaying Sweden's NATO membership would be bad.
Sweden takes the terms in the trilateral memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed with Türkiye and Finland in June very seriously, the country’s Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson also said Tuesday.
Throwing away their longstanding military nonalignment after Russia invaded Ukraine in February, Sweden and fellow Nordic nation Finland officially applied for NATO membership in June. For the two countries to join the alliance, their applications must be ratified by all 30 NATO members.
While 28 members have done so, Türkiye and Hungary have been withholding their votes, with Ankara criticizing, especially Sweden, for harboring members of various terrorist groups, like the PKK, and in recent years, the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ), the organization behind the 2016 defeated coup attempt in Türkiye.
The sides inked a tripartite agreement on June 28 at a NATO summit in Madrid, where Stockholm and Helsinki vowed to address Türkiye’s security concerns and fulfill key demands such as tougher anti-terror laws and the extradition of terrorist suspects.
Last week, in a “constructive and productive” visit to Ankara, Finland’s Defense Minister Antti Kaikkonen assured Türkiye’s Defense Minister Hulusi Akar that they understood and would work to address Ankara’s security concerns.
Kaikkonen said the sooner Türkiye ratifies its NATO membership bid the better and it would consider granting arms export permits to Türkiye, one of Ankara's requests, on a case-by-case basis.
The same day, Sweden’s chief negotiator for its NATO accession, Oscar Strenström, also reaffirmed his country’s determination to implement the steps stipulated by the Madrid pact and to take concrete action to distance itself from terrorist groups.
Turkish officials, including President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, have warned that Türkiye will not give the nod to the memberships of Sweden and Finland until the memorandum is fully implemented.
In November, the Swedish parliament passed a new anti-terror law that is expected to come into force in the spring of next year and enable “wider criminalization of participation in a terrorist organization or a ban against terrorist organizations.”
Earlier in December, Stockholm extradited a PKK member to Türkiye, who Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said was not on the list of people Ankara wanted from Stockholm.
“It’s a good start but Sweden needs to do more before we can approve their NATO membership,” Justice Minister Bekir Bozdağ separately said.
