A new action by pro-Kurdish activists in Sweden has drawn angry Turkish condemnation, with Ankara deploring an “unacceptable” action as Stockholm hopes to lift Turkey’s veto on NATO membership.

The Solidarity Committee for Rojava, a Swedish organization that supports Kurdish armed groups in Syria, which has been mobilizing regularly in recent months, posted a video on social media yesterday with content directed against Recep Tayyip Erdogan and shows a PKK flag being displayed at the Swedish parliament building, a day after the Turkish president was re-elected. In the video, among others, a photo of Erdogan is on fire, while another photo shows him with horns. Activists also insult Swedish government officials,

A spokesman for the Swedish parliament said some people used a projector to project messages onto the wall of the parliament building in the Swedish capital late Sunday. The spokesman said he had not received any documentation of what the content of the messages that were viewed was. Footage first shared on twitter by the Swedish Solidarity Committee for Rojava shows a Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) flag being displayed over the parliament building. The video also shows a burning effigy of the Turkish president.

Another image shared by the pro-Kurdish group includes text that reads “Freedom Ocalan”, in a reference to jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan. And this image was shown in the Parliament building.

The parliament spokesman said: “During the night from Sunday to Monday, several people stood on a pier on the opposite side of the river overlooking the Riksdag building (Swedish parliament) and projected messages onto the Riksdag building.” “The individuals left when Riksdag security guards arrived,” the spokesman added via email.

“It is completely unacceptable PKK terrorists to continue to operate freely in Sweden, which is a candidate country for NATO membership,” Fahrettin Altun, the representative of the Turkish presidency, reacted on Twitter. “We expect the Swedish authorities to investigate this incident and hold the perpetrators accountable,” he added.

A sworn enemy of the Turkish government, the PKK is designated a terrorist organization not only by Ankara, but also by Sweden, the European Union and the US.

The Rojava Committee most directly supports the YPG, a Kurdish armed group in Syria. The YPG is backed by the West in the war against Islamic State jihadists, but Ankara considers the group an offshoot of the PKK.

The Turkish government also asked Sweden not to give permission for a pro-Kurdish demonstration to take place scheduled for Sunday in Stockholm, after a tougher anti-terror law is due to come into force on Thursday in Sweden.

Following Erdogan’s re-election in Sunday’s presidential election, Sweden and its Western allies are hoping that Ankara will finally lift its objections to the Nordic country’s NATO bid, which it submitted along with Finland in May 2022.

Yesterday the Swedish Foreign Ministry announced that the foreign ministers of Sweden and Turkey will meet “soon” to discuss ratifying the Nordic country’s NATO membership. Today, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg stated that he is absolutely confident of Sweden joining the Atlantic Alliance. However, uncertainty remains about the stance Ankara will take.

Turkey ratified Finland’s request to join NATO in March, but still opposes Sweden’s request. Ankara maintains that Stockholm offers sanctuary to members of organizations that Ankara considers terrorists. Turkey also says that the Scandinavian country has not fulfilled the terms of the agreement reached in Madrid last June, which were intended to appease Ankara’s security concerns.

Sweden has one more “thorn” in its accession path: Hungary. And Budapest has yet to ratify the Nordic country’s membership, and for its part is demanding that Stockholm stop its criticism of Hungary’s backsliding on rule of law issues.