HS Analysis | With the Kurdish statement, Sweden wants to send a very clear message to Turkey – How long will it be enough on the NATO road?

Swedish foreign minister of the new government Tobias Billström got a kick out of Saturday after giving a talk for Swedish radio an interview in which he clearly distanced himself from the YPG and PYD Kurdish organizations.

“We [Ruotsin hallituksessa] we think they are questionable and problematic in a way that damages our relationship with Turkey,” Billström said.

The YPG is the Syrian Kurdish fighting organization and the PYD is its political branch. Turkey considers both of these to be terrorist organizations, as does the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, the PKK.

The PKK is classified as a terrorist organization in the EU and the US, unlike its sister organization YPG and PYD.

Read more: Sweden distances itself from the two Kurdish groups, according to the researcher, a major turning point happened already in the summer

So In Sweden as well as in Finland, Billström’s exit immediately sparked criticism that the Swedish government is bowing to Turkey’s pressure due to NATO membership.

Sweden’s former Minister of Justice, representing the Social Democrats Morgan Johansson for example wrote in his Instagram message that the government is betraying the Kurds. He reminded that the YPG/PYD has been in an important position in the fight against the Islamic extremist ISIS and has enjoyed the support of the West and the United States.

In Finland, on the other hand, there was at least Rkp’s criticism From Eva Biaudet, who sits in the parliament’s foreign affairs committee. Biaudet said For Svenska Yle it seems that Sweden is giving in in the face of blackmail.

“It seems like it’s okay that Turkey has had such demands on Sweden and Finland,” he said.

Billström’s Kurdish speeches were also interpreted as a policy change in how Sweden’s new government now views Kurdish organizations. The Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet described the matter for full translation.

Swedish prime minister Ulf Kristersson will meet the president in Turkey on Tuesday Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to discuss the NATO issue.

Turkey has repeatedly considered that Sweden is not satisfied Turkey’s wishes regarding the fight against terrorism. This message was last heard when the Secretary General of NATO Jens Stoltenberg and the Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu met last week in Ankara.

With Billström’s strictly worded message, Sweden’s new government now wants to send a clear message to Turkey before Kristersson’s trip, that Sweden listens to Turkey’s concerns.

The message is that the new government is very committed to this and to complying with the memorandum of understanding signed by Finland, Sweden and Turkey in the summer.

The same tone was heard During Kristersson’s visits to Finland. He emphasized how Turkey’s fight against terrorism is justified and how Sweden is “wholeheartedly” committed to fulfilling what Sweden, Finland and Turkey agreed to in the memorandum of understanding.

In the process Billström’s exit is not about a dramatic full turn of the line, experts quickly reminded on Saturday.

Director of the Institute of Turkish Studies at Stockholm University Paul T. Levin described at length in his Twitter thread Billström’s statement “for clarification and clarification.”

Interviewed by DN Former Consul General of Sweden in Istanbul Ingmar Karlsson believed that it would not change Sweden’s attitude towards Kurdish organizations very much.

Sweden’s previous government led by the Social Democrats signed a tripartite memorandum of understanding in the summerwhich states, among other things, that Finland and Sweden do not support the YPG or the PYD.

Levin pointed out that this was a change of course compared to what the Social Democrats had previously agreed to as a member of parliament Amineh Kakabaveh with.

Kakabaveh, who no longer sits in the Diet, made an agreement with the Social Democrats last year in which the party committed to support the PYD. In return, the Social Democrats got Kakabaveh’s support in crucial votes, which kept the party in power.

Before this, for example, the foreign minister of the previous social democratic government Ann Linde showed visible support for Kurdish autonomy in northeastern Syria and met with representatives of the PYD.

Sweden’s line has thus moved during the NATO process, but movements have already taken place before.

Former Govt turned the line as well already in arms exports to Turkey.

Swedish politicians – and of course not Finns either – have not recently highlighted Turkey’s human rights problems, hindering the operation of the opposition or, for example, freedom of the press very widely.

The question is now, how much more Sweden alone can do and what Kristersson can offer Erdoğan if the actions and communication done now are not enough.

It is clear that Turkey is trying to get all possible benefits from its NATO delay.

It has already had its own view of terrorism very widely expressed in NATO. It probably hopes for more, such as F-16 fighter jet deals with the US.

However, Kristersson’s room for maneuver is very limited when it comes to the extradition of terrorist suspects that Turkey wants, for example. This has been a key issue for Turkey.

Turkey has interpreted in public, that the memorandum of understanding promises the extradition of terrorism suspects. However, in Sweden and Finland, cases are handled according to standard legal practices and the principles of the rule of law, which the countries have very clearly emphasized.

It is very difficult to bend on this question.