In an effort to persuade Turkey’s president to back its application to join Nato, Sweden’s new government will distance itself from several Kurdish groups, including the People’s Protection Units (YPG), a Kurdish militia in Syria, and the associated political group, the Democratic Union party (PYD). Turkey views the militia as a threat because of its ties to the ICurdistan Workers’ party (PKK), recognised by the EU and US as a terrorist organisation. Erdogan is the last big obstacle against the Nato applications of Sweden and Finland. The new Swedish stance was met with a positive reaction in Ankara, but was condemned by the former Swedish centre-left government, and by Kurdish activists: the Social Democrats were in power until last month only because of the vote of a pro-Kurdish MP. Turkey is currently holding up Sweden’s Nato application and, by extension, Finland’s. Jens Stoltenberg, Nato’s secretary general, during a recent visit to Turkey said that “it’s time to welcome Finland and Sweden as full members of Nato”: this is the most pressure he has placed on Ankara, in public.
