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Sweden accepting Turkey’s demands to cut off support for Syrian Kurds in return for Turkey allowing Sweden to join NATO is a “black day for Swedish foreign policy”, Reuters cited Iranian Kurdish-Swedish deputy Amineh Kakabaveh as saying.
The move will put stress on asylum seekers and those who seek sanctuary in Sweden, said the independent deputy who has been key to the survival of Sweden’s Social Democratic government.
Kakabaveh had agreed to side with the Social Democrats when Justice Minister Morgan Johansson faced a no-confidence vote in early June, when Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson had said the government would resign if the minister was voted out.
Following the trilateral memorandum signed between Turkey, Sweden and Finland on Tuesday, Kakabaveh is now threatening to launch a no-confidence motion against Sweden’s Foreign Minister Ann Linde.
However, such a motion would likely fail as Sweden has elections coming up in September and most lawmakers support NATO membership, according to Reuters.
Turkey demanded extradition of some 30 Swedish residents and a tightening of anti-terror laws that could seriously affect the country’s small but vibrant Kurdish community of some 100,000 people, a significant portion of whom are political refugees and asylum seekers. There are several Swedes of Kurdish origin at various levels in politics as well.
“This is a betrayal by the Swedish government, NATO member states and the NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg who deceived an entire group who liberated the whole world from ISIS,” Kakabaveh said, as reported by Sweden’s daily Dagens Nyheter.
Sweden has “now bowed to a tyrant”, the deputy said. “You lose everything because of a dictator and ally with another dictator.”
A settlement must be negotiated for Sweden’s bid to join NATO but “not at the expense of Kurds”, she added.
