Further straining the ties between Türkiye and Sweden, the former on Friday opened up an inquiry into an accident in Stockholm where an effigy of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was burnt by Kurdish elements.
Trying to pacify Ankara, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson released a statement denouncing the Kurds behind the effigy burning and called it an act of ‘sabotage’ against Sweden’s bid to join North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
“People tried to show their views on the Swedish NATO accession through a disgusting way of portraying president Erdogan in almost something looking like an execution,” said Kristersson.
The Swedish PM was referring to Ankara once again halting its bid to join the powerful military alliance.
Türkiye holds Sweden’s fortunes in its hands. The Nordic country has been seeking a NATO spot since last year. So far, not much progress has been made on the issue as Ankara has refused to ratify Sweden’s application.
Erdogan continues to blast Sweden for providing a safe haven to Kurdish ‘terrorists’. The Turkish leader is also cross with the Nordic countries for imposing an arms embargo on Ankara after Türkiye’s intervention in the Syrian conflict in 2019.
“Until the promises made to our country are kept, we will maintain our principled position. We are closely following whether the promises made by Sweden and Finland are kept or not, and of course, the final decision will be up to our great parliament,” Erdogan had said in the country’s parliament last year.
A few days back, Kristersson said Sweden cannot accept some demands of Erdogan for NATO membership.
“From time to time, Türkiye mentions individuals that they want to see extradited from Sweden. To that I have said that those issues are handled within Swedish law,”
Notably, Sweden sped up its process to join the nuclear-armed alliance after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, last year.
It submitted the official application in May but to become a member, all 30 NATO allies need to sign the ratification document
So far, 28 out of 30 countries have signed the document. Only Türkiye and Hungary are yet to put pen to paper.
(With inputs from agencies)
