Turkish and Swedish foreign ministers hold tense talks in Ankara
ANKARA, Turkey (North Press) – Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu criticized the foreign policies of each other’s respective countries in a tense meeting in Ankara on Tuesday.
Sweden has had mostly positive relations with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in northeast Syria, and in June 2019 a Swedish delegation met with SDF Commander-in-Chief Mazloum Abdi.
Turkey, in turn, considers the SDF a terrorist organization and an offshoot of the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has been engaged in an armed struggle with the Turkish state for decades. In July 2020, the Turkish Foreign Ministry released a press statement accusing Minister Linde of meeting with “PKK/PYD/YPG terrorists”, and added that the meeting “raises serious questions about Sweden’s stance as regards the fight against terrorism.”
In the Tuesday meeting, Cavusoglu criticized Sweden’s condemnation of Turkish military incursions into northeast Syria. In 2018, members of Swedish parliament called on Turkey to end their invasion of Syria’s Kurdish-majority region of Afrin, and in 2019 Linde describing the Turkish invasion of Sere Kaniye and Tel Abyad as “a direct violation of human rights.”
Cavusoglu also claimed that Sweden has remained silent regarding Greece’s treatment of refugees.
Linde fired back at the Turkish Foreign Minister, adding, “I will just hope that everybody in Turkey will have the possibility to express their views as frank as you are doing, minister,” in a reference to Turkey’s routine arbitrary arrests and detentions of journalists and critics of the Turkish government.
Despite the criticisms laid out by both officials, Linde later described the talks as “frank and rewarding” on her official Twitter account.