The video caused a diplomatic incident yesterday, Thursday, between Turkey and Sweden – Turkish prosecutors have launched an investigation
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristerson today condemned a video posted by a Kurdish group showing an effigy of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hanging by the feet from a rope in Stockholm.
The staging of an “alleged execution of a democratically elected foreign leader” is “extremely serious”, said Christerson on the TV4 network.
The video, posted on Twitter by the Rojava Committee (as the Kurdish territories in northern Syria are called), an organization close to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), shows the execution of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini in 1945, and then the effigy of Erdogan hanging by the feet on the end of a rope in front of Stockholm’s city hall. “History has shown that this is the end of dictators” says the text printed on the video.
The video caused a diplomatic incident yesterday, Thursday, between Turkey and Sweden. The ambassador of Sweden in Ankara was summoned to the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
THE Turkey has been blocking Sweden — as well as Finland — from joining NATO since May, accusing it of harboring on its soil members of the PKK and organizations allied with it, whom it considers terrorists. Sweden is home to a significant Kurdish diaspora.
The Swedish Prime Minister estimated that the action of the organization was intended to “undermine Sweden’s request to join NATO”.
In early December, Sweden deported a PKK member to Turkey. However, the Turkish government continues to request the extradition of others.
Meanwhile, Turkish prosecutors today launched an investigation into the incident, according to state media.
Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency reported that the investigation began after a legal request was made by Erdogan’s lawyer.
“A criminal complaint has been filed with the Ankara Chief Prosecutor’s Office, demanding an investigation against the perpetrators,” Erdogan’s lawyer Huseyn Aydin tweeted.
Echoing Turkish pro-government media that broadcast footage of the incident, Aydin said it was understood to have been organized by the PKK.
Sweden and Finland last year signed a tripartite agreement aimed at overcoming Ankara’s objections to their requests to join the NATO.
A diplomatic source said that Turkey expressed its reaction to the Swedish ambassador Staffan Herström at the Turkish Foreign Ministry yesterday. Stockholm confirmed that the Swedish ambassador had been summoned.
Erdogan’s spokesman İbrahim Kalin condemned the “disgusting and disgusting” protest and said Swedish authorities had an obligation to take concrete steps under the law and the agreement with Turkey.
“Unless the activities of terrorist organizations are stopped, it is not possible for the NATO accession process to proceed,” he tweeted.
Similar statements were made by other Turkish officials, with parliament speaker Mustafa Sedop canceling his Swedish counterpart’s planned visit to Turkey on January 17.
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