Turkey’s President Erdogan suggests Sweden has ‘not done enough’ regarding PKK terrorist organisation

TURKISH President Recep Tayyip Erdogan believes that Sweden has not done enough about the PKK’s activities in the country.

Speaking during a press conference this Saturday, November 4, when asked about Sweden’s pending application for NATO membership, he responded: ‘The most important thing among our expectations was the demonstrations of the PKK terrorist organisation on the streets of Stockholm’, according to cnnturk.com.

He continued: ‘We talked about this with the Prime Minister. They also told us that they paved the way for arms exports to Turkey from Sweden. It is true that they took these steps on those issues. But unfortunately, no measures have been taken so far regarding the activities of the PKK terrorist organization in Sweden. There is no step taken’.

When did Erdogan submit Sweden’s NATO application?

Whether the application will be ratified by the Turkish parliament remains to be seen. It was submitted on October 23 by Erdogan.

Erdogan pointed out today that he had done his part by submitting the application but that Sweden’s NATO future was now the hands of parliament. However, he would try to facilitate the process as much as possible he insisted.

‘No step has been taken. Our duty was to refer this matter to the parliament in the first place, and we did it. Now our friends in the parliament, and we, as the People’s Alliance, will continue our work there’, Erdogan commented.

He explained: ‘The other day, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg sent me a little thank you message. He also follows these studies closely. He says that he sees my step of sending this matter to the Parliament as a positive step’.

However, the President added: ‘So I sent news to him. I said, from now on, it belongs to the parliament. If America has a House of Representatives and a Senate, we also have a House. We will see how our parliament will interpret this and how it will negotiate’.

In theory, Ankara has until December 10 to hold a vote on Sweden’s NATO application during its autumn session. Should its importance be downgraded by the parliament for some reason then the ratification could drag on into next year.

Hungary is the only other NATO member to not ratify the Swedish application. Officials in Budapest previously suggested that they did not want to be the last to act but they have not raised the issue in parliament yet.