Dagens Nyheter | Kurdo Baksi

Tuesday's announcement that Turkey says yes to a Swedish NATO membership comes with unpleasant reservations. Kurdo Baksi fears police storms in the pigsty, that Swedish Kurds will be forced on board aircraft with destination Ankara and inquiries via Interpol.

A new nightmare awaits the Swedish Kurds?

After the assassination of Prime Minister Olof Palme, Sweden's Kurds were subjected to a gigantic witch hunt. It was not until decades later that the PKK was released from all suspicion during a well-publicized press conference.

When I was reached on Tuesday evening by the news of a conditional Turkish yes to a Swedish and Finnish membership in NATO, I remembered the nightmares of the eighties: Terrible scenarios were played out in me: police storms in the swine flu, Swedish Kurds who, despite being granted a refuge here, are forced on board aircraft with destination Ankara or Istanbul, crying children and girlfriends, Kurds who never again dare to holiday outside Sweden's borders because Ankara is looking for them via Interpol.

I know what I'm talking about. Long before Russia invaded Ukraine and the Social Democrats turned on the NATO issue, I began to receive calls from innocent Kurds affected by the new terror law that came into force in 2020 and which was intended to punish pro-violence Islamists. On July 1, the law will be tightened further, but so far it has mainly been used against Kurds who have secured the security of the Western world through their acclaimed war against the Islamic State (IS). How did Morgan Johansson and the Social Democratic government think?

38 Swedish Kurds who came to Sweden for love or to work have during the past two years been told that their residence permit will not be extended despite the fact that they have children in Sweden and behaved exemplary. Behind the refusals are, according to information from those affected, messages from Säpo to the Swedish Migration Board that these people have connections to the PKK, because they posted pictures of the PKK flag or PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan on their social media. Swedish police act, just like Turkish, based on the principle of guilt by association.

For two years, these Kurds have tried to make their voices heard in the Swedish media, but no one cares. Kurds are punished, everywhere on earth. They have no embassies, no lobbyists, no blackmail tools either against Sweden or against another state. Kurds can be sacrificed, especially if one fears the despot in the Kremlin and seeks refuge in NATO.

Tuesday's announcement in Madrid that Turkey says yes to a Swedish NATO membership comes with unpleasant reservations. Among other things, the Swedish arms embargo against Turkey, a country that is now waging a war inside Iraqi Kurdistan, will be lifted. Turkey also threatens to invade Syrian Kurdistan at any time. How can Sweden boast of human rights when Swedish weapons will kill Kurds?

No, I will forever regard Tuesday's Swedish settlement with Turkey as an embarrassing and capitulated moment in Swedish history. And I sleeplessly worry that the nightmare of the eighties will be repeated.