Status: 01/13/2023 7:47 p.m
Sweden’s dispute with Turkey over Sweden’s NATO accession has been enriched by a new conflict. In Stockholm, activists hung a doll of Turkish President Erdogan upside down. Ankara reacted sharply.
An incident in central Stockholm sparks another conflict between Sweden and Turkey. Activists hung a doll upside down by its feet within sight of Stockholm City Hall, apparently intended to represent Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The incident happened on Wednesday.
Turkey summoned the Swedish ambassador and canceled a visit by the Swedish speaker of the parliament to Ankara.
Problem for Sweden joining NATO
The action is a problem for Sweden, because Turkey is currently blocking the country’s planned NATO membership. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said after the incident that Sweden’s “expectations will not be met as long as something like this is going on”. He blamed supporters of the banned Kurdish Workers’ Party PKK and the Syrian Kurdish militia YPG. “The PKK and YPG are laying mines in Sweden on the way to NATO membership. It is now up to Sweden to clear these mines or knowingly step on them,” Cavusoglu said.
Activists from a Swedish organization that describes itself as “a network for solidarity and exchange with the revolutionary movement throughout Kurdistan” claimed responsibility for the action.
Sweden’s prime minister speaks of “sabotage”
Sweden’s Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson condemned the action. It is bad and disgusting in every respect, he said at a press conference with EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Kiruna, northern Sweden. He understands the Turkish anger over the incident. His government would have reacted in the same way if such an action had been directed against leading Swedish politicians in another country. With regard to NATO, Kristersson said it was “sabotaging” the Swedish and Finnish applications – with the express aim of preventing membership.
With the doll hanging upside down, the activists referred to the death of the fascist dictator of Italy, Benito Mussolini. His body had been hung upside down in Milan in 1945 after being shot by Italian partisans.