Global Courant 2023-05-30 17:30:09
ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey on Tuesday called on NATO hopefuls Sweden to prosecute those responsible for projecting the flag of a banned group on the parliament building in Stockholm, on the day of Turkey’s elections to overturn President Tayyip’s rule Erdogan extended.
A spokesperson for Sweden’s parliament said a number of people projected messages onto the building in Sweden’s capital late on Sunday, adding that there was no documentation of what was being projected.
The warning could raise the stakes ahead of a NATO summit in mid-July, where some alliance members are urging Turkey to support Sweden’s membership request, after a year of delay over concerns that Stockholm must do more to denounce militant groups. to take.
Images first shared on Twitter by the so-called Swedish Solidarity Committee for Rojava – a reference to Syria’s Kurdish regions – projected a Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) flag onto the parliament building.
Another image shared by the account reads “Freedom for Ocalan,” in reference to imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, which was also projected onto the building.
“We expect the Swedish authorities to investigate this incident, hold those responsible accountable and prevent self-identified members of the PKK – recognized by the EU as a terrorist entity – from operating on Swedish territory,” said Fahrettin Altun, the communications director. of the Turkish Presidency. said on Twitter.
The parliament spokesman said: “In the night leading up to Monday, a number of people stood on a quay across the water from the Riksdag (Swedish Parliament) building and projected messages onto the Riksdag building.”
“The individuals left when the Riksdag guards arrived,” the spokesperson added in an email.
The incident came after Erdogan won a mandate in second-round elections to continue his muscular foreign policy, in which Turkey objected to both Sweden’s and Finland’s bids to join NATO last year in the face of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
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Turkey ratified Finland’s bid in March, but still objects to Sweden. It says Stockholm is home to members of militant groups it considers terrorists and has failed to honor its part of last year’s deal designed to ease Ankara’s security concerns.
Membership bids must be approved by all NATO members.
Altun said he hoped Sweden would properly enforce a new anti-terror law due to take effect on June 1 and prevent PKK members from demonstrating during a protest against Sweden’s NATO membership called for June 4 by the Solidarity Committee.
Ahmet Berat Conkar, former chairman of the parliament’s foreign affairs committee and head of the Turkish delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, said Turkey expects more involvement from Sweden in implementing their terrorism laws.
“These factors will be important in our parliament’s decision on Sweden’s membership. But on a positive note, as you see in the case of Finland, Turkey is open to NATO expansion and we will apply the same standard to Sweden as well.” he said in an interview.
(Reporting by Huseyin Hayatsever in Ankara, Jonathan Spicer in Istanbul and Anna Ringstrom in Stockholm, William Maclean)
