Türkiye-Sweden relations came to the fore again after PKK members hanged President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s puppet in an anti-Türkiye demonstration held in Stockholm.
Russia Today (RT) asked political scientist and United World International author Onur Sinan Guzaltan about Türkiye’s ongoing objections to Sweden and Finland’s NATO membership. Below is the interviews transcription. To watch the entire interview video follow this link.
What is your reaction to the Kurdish group posting a video with a dummy of president Erdogan?
First I would like to say that the PKK is a terrorist organization, which is directly controlled by the American intelligence the CIA. That is the first point. Secondly, many western countries and especially Sweden have been supporting this organization for more than 40 years. So this protest in Stockholm organized by the PKK members was not a big surprise for me or for the Turkish public because we already know that Sweden and many other European countries are supporting this organization.
This is obviously condemned by Sweden and the Swedish Prime Minister. And the Swedish Ambassador was summoned to Tukiye to answer for this and to see what actions Sweden would take that Türkiye demanded for the investigation of the people behind this to be brough to justice. Do you think that these two countries would be able to move on from this quickly?
Even from this protest we can see that Sweden and also Finland do not take Turkish requests that seriously. Because they are keep hosting many members of the PKK and of the FETO terrorist organization and are also supporting these organizations. And these protests show us that they keep supporting these organizations openly. So I think even this statement from the Swedish side would not change Türkiye’s position on Sweden’s ascension into NATO.
It will not change Türkiye’s position? So you do not think that this would possibly derail the negotiations for those two countries to become NATO members?
I think I can say that even though Türkiye is officially a member of NATO, but in a strategic or even a psychological sense within the public, we are not a member of NATO anymore. So we understood from these protests, the Swedish actions, and the general European strategy against Turkiye, that we have no more common interests with NATO or most of the NATO members. So, I think that a positive statement from the Swedish side would not change the position of the Turkish government. Because this problem is much more complex than a simple and a childish protest.
Do you make anything out of the timing of this protest? It took place just a day after the Swedish diplomats were saying that the talks for the country ascension were going well. Do you think this was designed to undermine that?
This is a very good question. I think we have to evaluate this protest with the attack which took place in Paris two weeks ago. We can remember there was an attack on a Kurdish cultural center that belonged to the PKK. And this attack was conducted by a French right-wing supremacist. And today this protest can show us that a power (US) tried to manipulate the Turkish-European relations. I think we have to analyze the attack in Paris and the protests in Stockholm together. And when we analyze these two events together, we should not forget that the PKK is controlled by the American Intelligence the CIA. And several US officials also said that the Syrian branch of the PKK, the YPG/PYD is their strategic ally. So, it is better to analyze the Stockholm protest in this context.