Hundreds of people marched in Stockholm on Sunday carrying anti-NATO slogans and flags of Ankara’s pet Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), condemning a new Swedish anti-terror law passed under pressure from Turkey to join the alliance.
“They follow the Kurds in Sweden“The aim of the new law is to vindicate Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan,” said Thomas Peterson, a spokesman for the anti-NATO coalition, which organized the protest.Let Sweden join NATO“, he added. Turkey has been blocking Sweden’s entry into the Atlantic alliance for thirteen months, condemning it for its leniency towards Kurdish militias it hosts on its soil. The new law came into effect in Sweden on June 1 “Participation in a terrorist organization“, strengthening the country’s legislation in this area is one of the conditions set by Turkey to lift its veto on joining NATO, an alliance it has been a member of since 1952. The demonstration at the Stockholm Center, titled “No NATO, no Erdogan laws in Sweden!“, organized by”Alliance against NATO“, which specifically includes the Rojava Committee, a support group for Kurdish armed groups in Syria.
President Erdogan, who was re-elected on May 28 at the helm of Turkey, specifically called for Sweden to deport dozens of Kurdish activists. The Turkish government expressed its irritation earlier in the week that movements close to the PKK organized the demonstration.
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