Why is Turkey Blocking Sweden & Finland from joining NATO? Erdogan, Kurds, Terrorism & the PKK

Behind the News

Do Sweden & Finland support Terrorism? That’s what they’re being accused of by Turkey’s President Erdogan. Turkey says it’s going to block the Scandinavian countries from joining NATO because it believes they support a group known as the PKK, the Kurdistan Workers Party. 0:00 Why is Erdogan & Turkey blocking NATO? 0:32 Who are the Kurds? 1:15 Why isn't Kurdistan a Country? 2:09 History of Kurds in Turkey 2:45 Turkification of Kurds 3:30 What is the PKK & who is Abdullah Ocalan? 5:25 Do Sweden & Finland Support Terrorism? 6:35 Erdogan & Terrorism in Turkey 7:50 Kurds in Syria Fighting ISIS 8:15 The SDF, the YPG & the PKK 8:40 Mazloum Abdi / Ferhat Abdi Sahin 9:23 Trade Bans & Turkey Moving into Syria 9:50 Turkey & NATO So, who exactly are the Kurds? What's behind this tension with the Turkish government? And what does any of this have to do with Scandinavian countries on the opposite side of the continent? Kurds are one of the world’s biggest ethnic groups that don’t have their own home country, with the majority living in a region known as Kurdistan. For centuries, the Ottoman empire spanned multiple continents and was home to a range of ethnic groups, like the Kurds. When it fell after WW1, new borders were drawn up. Kurdish people continued to live in the region but were now split across multiple countries where they have often been on the receiving end of brutal and violent repression and persecution. So, what happened to the millions of Kurds that found themselves in this newly created Republic of Turkey? Turkish leaders were worried about the idea of minority ethnic groups rising up and pushing for independence, something the Ottoman Empire had seen a lot of during the Balkan Wars and WW1. So, a decision was made to erase the languages and cultures of minority groups from public life. What followed were uprisings in the 1920s and 30s by Kurdish people who wanted more rights, recognition and independence. Many Kurds were forced from their homes, Kurdish names and traditional clothes were banned and the Kurdish language was restricted. The government even went as far as denying the existence of the Kurdish ethnic identity instead using the term “Mountain Turks.” In 1978, Abdullah Öcalan formed the PKK, a communist group that called for an independent Kurdish state within Turkey. In 1984 the PKK went to war with the Turkish government, which resulted in the deaths of more than 40,000 people. There have been many examples of the PKK attacking civilians and committing terrorist acts and by the early 2000s most western countries had labelled the PKK a terrorist organisation. The reason why Turkey thinks Sweden and Finland support terrorism, is that both have a long history of taking in Kurdish asylum seekers and refugees, particularly political refugees. Erdogan says a number of these Kurds are terrorists and he’s even accused some politicians of being terrorists too. The Turkish government says it’s provided Sweden and Finland with a list of terrorists that it wants sent back to Turkey, but so far it seems that both Sweden and Finland don’t agree with the charges or are willing to send anyone over. A big reason why, is the fact that Turkey and Sweden and Finland have very different ideas of what a terrorist actually is. For years, the Turkish government has been criticised by human rights groups for using terrorism accusations as a way of silencing critics. In 2022, Reporters Without Borders ranked Turkey 149th in the world for press freedom. The Turkish government says it has to take a more extreme approach towards national security because it faces more threats than any of its European allies. Over the past decade, a number of western countries, including Sweden and Finland, have supported a Kurdish-led alliance in Syria that have been helping in the fight against ISIS. The Turkish government says the SDF alliance is dominated by a terrorist group known as the YPG, which it says is Syrian version of the PKK. In 2019, Erdogan even publicly accused the Mazloum Abdi (Ferhat Abdi Şahin), Commander of the SDF, of being a terrorist, with close ties to Abdullah Ocalan. Most western countries only recognise the PKK, and not the YPG, as a terrorist organisation. The reason why Sweden and Finland are being called out is because they’re the ones applying for NATO, which puts Turkey in a strong bargaining position because every single member of NATO needs to approve before anyone new can be added. The Turkish government says it does want Sweden and Finland to join NATO, but it won’t allow them to join a security organisation while they support groups that Turkey says threaten its own security. Turkey is hoping it can use this opportunity to get some big concessions, like some of the trade bans being lifted and getting help in shutting down what it believes to be threats in other countries.