STOCKHOLM —
Sweden hopes to strike a compromise with Turkey to seal its NATO membership bid, but
fears are mounting in the Scandinavian country that the government may
sacrifice too much to get what it wants.
اضافة اعلان
"If you want to sell everything for
NATO membership, then go ahead but I think it's awful", blasted Amineh
Kakabaveh, a Swedish lawmaker of Iranian Kurdish origin.
"It's awful that everything depends on
NATO membership, rushing it through and undermining democracy," she told
AFP in an interview.
A former Left Party member sitting in
parliament as an independent since 2019, she played a pivotal role in the
election of Prime Minister
Magdalena Andersson in November 2021, providing the
decisive vote in parliament.
Like Kakabaveh, other prominent Swedes have
in recent weeks urged the government not to cave in to Turkey's demands.
"Let's not fall into Erdogan's
trap", argued an op-ed signed by 17 cultural and literary figures in
Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter this week, referring to
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Any NATO membership deal must be unanimously
approved by all 30 members of the alliance.
But Turkey has refused to agree to the
opening of negotiations with Stockholm.
Among other things Ankara accuses it of
providing a safe haven for the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), listed
as a "terrorist" group by Turkey and its Western allies.
Turkey on Monday published a list of five
demands for Sweden, including the extradition of people Ankara considers
"terrorists" for having links to the PKK and its allies in Syria, the
People's Protection Units (YPG).
Widespread support for Kurdish cause
According to Turkish media, other people on
the list include journalists whom Ankara accuses of having ties to Fethullah
Gulen, the US-based preacher wanted over a failed 2016 coup in Turkey.
Two of them, Abdullah Bozkurt and Levent
Kenez, said that finding themselves caught in a power struggle between Ankara
and Stockholm "didn't come as a surprise".
"We were actually joking a month before
Sweden decided to apply for membership in NATO. We said 'If they do, our names
are perhaps going to come up on the bargaining table'. And that is exactly what
happened," Bozkurt told AFP.
The pair, who started the news site Nordic
Monitor, are convinced their lives would be in danger if they were extradited
to Turkey.
They said they were confident the Swedish
judiciary would not bow to pressure and would continue to reject
Ankara's
demands for their extradition.
But they did express concern about their
safety in Sweden.
Bozkurt was attacked by three masked men in
2020. A police investigation is still ongoing.
Kenez said "the biggest risk" was
that pro-government media outlets publish their pictures "and that
endangers our security here."
Sweden and Turkey began diplomatic talks in
Ankara on Wednesday.
The two countries have had thorny ties for
years, with the Kurdish question one of their main bones of contention.
While Sweden was one of the first countries
to recognize the PKK as a terrorist organization in the 1980s, there is
"political and widespread popular support for 'the Kurdish cause',
including parliamentarians on both sides of the aisle", said Paul Levin,
head of the Institute for Turkey Studies at Stockholm University.
Moment of truth
The
Scandinavian country has welcomed around
100,000 Kurds from Turkey, Iran, and Iraq since the 1970s.
"A lot of Kurds see Sweden as a second
home," said Linnaeus University researcher Barzoo Eliassi, an expert on
the diaspora.
Sweden has been governed by the
Social Democrats for the better part of the post-war period and has been strongly
influenced by the party's fight for international solidarity.
It has historically provided a safe haven
for dissidents and those fleeing oppression, in addition to championing issues
like human rights and feminism.
Now, it finds itself faced with
'realpolitik'.
Eliassi said the negotiations with
Turkey will show "Sweden's real face" and will reveal "what is
negotiable and what is non-negotiable".
One of the sticking points is sure to be the
YPG in Syria.
Ankara views the YPG, which fought against
the Islamic State group in Syria with Western support, as the PKK's
Syria offshoot.
Having applied to NATO to protect itself
from Russian aggression, Sweden now has to contend with another strong power —
just four months ahead of a general election.
"If they give in even before joining
NATO, I think it will be counterproductive and it will undermine the very
reason that they wanted to join the alliance in the first place", said
Bozkurt.
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