Protests in Stockholm against trilateral memorandum

A rally was staged in the Swedish capital on Saturday in protest against a recent deal between Sweden, Finland and Turkey, which some of the speakers called the ‘Kurdish bargain’.

A large crowd gathered in Stockholm to join the rally, organised under the leadership of the Democratic Kurdish Community Centres (DKTM).

Swedish MP Amineh Kakabaveh emphasised in her speech the unprecedented struggle and resistance against the Islamic State (ISIS) that Kurds put up for the benefit of the whole world. She continued:

“The negotiation between Sweden and Turkey is a total disgrace. The Kurds are not saying, ‘Don’t join NATO’; only, ‘Don’t use us as a bargaining chip.’ Sweden is acting in breach of its own promises to the Kurds.”

Hemid Amed, co-chair of the Swedish branch of DKTM, said, ‘the Swedish government has used the Kurds in a bargain to secure its own interests.’

Ahmed Karamus, co-chair of Kurdistan National Congress (KNK), noted that the deal marked a ‘betrayal’ of both Kurds and Swedes, and that its ‘dirty content’ was in dire conflict both with Swedish domestic law and with human values. He said:

“How could they use Kurds as a bargaining chip to negotiate with the bloodthirsty Turkish administration, which no longer has anything to do with human rights? Nobody has the right to label Kurds as terrorists just because Turkey wants them to.”

Daniel Riazat, MP for the Left Party, asserted that he would always be in solidarity with the Kurdish struggle, saying:

“I am critical of the Social Democratic Party too; their every deal with Turkey leads to the deaths of Kurds. This policy is very wrong. They should not have lifted the arms embargo against Turkey.”

Turkey, who had earlier opposed Sweden and Finland’s accession to NATO over claims that the two countries have been harbouring terror groups, dropped its objection as a trilateral memorandum was signed on 28 June.

The two Nordic countries assured Turkey that they would prosecute and extradite Kurdish activists with alleged ties to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), they would not support the People’s Defence Units (YPG) in north Syria – who are claimed by Ankara to be an extension of the PKK – and they would lift the arms embargoes that were imposed upon Turkey’s invasion of northern Syrian territories in 2019.