Sweden asks for six more months to fulfil Turkiye demands for NATO membership bid

Officials in Sweden have requested more time to process and codify laws that would gain Turkiye’s approval for its NATO membership bid, as the time grows shorter leading up to Turkiye’s upcoming elections this year.

Speaking to journalists on Saturday, Turkish presidential spokesperson, Ibrahim Kalin, revealed that Swedish officials have asked for another six months to arrange the necessary legislation to satisfy Turkiye’s demands to crack down on terrorism and Kurdish militant elements within Sweden, as well as to limit their influence within the country’s political system.

Without touching on Ankara’s plans or response, Kalin emphasised that Stockholm must take more steps to meet the demands and stamp out the influences of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) – an organisation designated as a terror group by Turkiye, the European Union (EU) and the United States – and its affiliates in Syria.

Last year, following Sweden and Finland’s applications to join the NATO military alliance due to threats from Russia and its invasion of Ukraine, the two EU member states signed an agreement with Turkiye to not only cease any support for the Kurdish groups, but also to lift arms embargoes, extradite wanted individuals and promise not to help the network of US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, who Ankara blames for the 2016 coup attempt.

READ: Turkiye calls for Sweden to fight PKK provocations

Since then, Sweden has made some constitutional amendments against terrorism that came into effect on 1 January. While Ankara has repeatedly stressed the meeting of its demands, Swedish Prime Minister, Ulf Kristersson, earlier this month stated that “we have done what we said we would do. But they [Turkiye] also say that they want things that we can’t and won’t give them.”

With regards to the laws that Stockholm is implementing, Kalin said that “It may take six months to codify them, until June”, emphasising that Swedish government officials “need to send a very concrete message to terror groups that Sweden isn’t a safe haven for them.”

Waiting another six months for the process to be complete represents a problem for the current Turkish government ruled by the Justice and Development Party (AKP), though, as the country’s upcoming elections are set to take place in June.

According to Kalin and government officials, the elections – which will determine the continuation or resignation of AKP rule and that of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan – could even be rescheduled earlier to mid-May, making the completion of Ankara’s agreement with Stockholm an urgent one.

Rather than six months, Kalin said that Sweden has eight to ten weeks to make the relevant changes as the Turkish Parliament may also go into recess prior to the elections. “The Turkish opposition may ask all sorts of questions if they don’t deliver the changes before we go to Parliament to ratify it”, he said.

READ: Sweden blocks extradition of dissident Turkish journalist