ANKARA.- The President of Türkiye, Recep Tayyip Erdoganhas insisted this Wednesday that Sweden does not take all measures against groups and people that Ankara considers terrorists, something that maintains the Turkish veto on the entry of that country into NATO, two weeks before the Alliance summit in Vilnius.
“PKK/PYD/YPG supporters in Sweden continue to freely organize rallies in praise of terrorism, recruit people and provide financial resources to terrorist organizations, which is unacceptable for Turkey,” Erdogan said in a phone chat with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. .
The PKK, the Kurdish guerrilla active in Turkey, is considered a terrorist by the European Union and the United States, while the PYD/YPG is the Syrian Kurdish militia allied with Washington against the jihadist Islamic State.
In that conversation with Scholz, Erdogan acknowledged that Sweden has taken “some steps in the right direction”, for example by reforming its legislation on terrorism, but also that Turkey expects more measures, according to the Turkish Presidency in a statement.
On the other hand, the Swedish Police has authorized this Wednesday a public burning of the Koran in a square in Stockholm, something that the Turkish newspaper Hürriyet points out will open a new diplomatic crisis between Turkey and Sweden.
The burning of a copy of the Koran last January in front of the Turkish Embassy by the Danish-Swedish far-right Rasmus Paludan provoked a wave of protests and a resounding complaint from the Turkish government.
“It is legal, but not ideal,” Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said today in reference to the action, who did not want to speculate on Turkey’s possible reactions and the consequences for Sweden’s entry into NATO.
