Ankara, , Oct 2 (Online): A suicide bombing that rocked Turkey’s capital on Sunday risks complicating the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s efforts to bring in Sweden as a new member.
The attack was carried out by the PKK, a Kurdish militant group whose activities in Sweden Turkey says go almost unchecked. A day before the bombing, Turkish authorities condemned Sweden for allowing PKK supporters to stage a rally in Stockholm against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
“Erdogan is likely to use the PKK’s latest violence in the heart of the Turkish capital as leverage to press for his demands for Sweden to intensify its crackdown on the group’s supporters,” said Nihat Ali Ozcan, a strategist at the Economic Policy Research Foundation in Ankara.
That would hardly be a surprise for Sweden, which applied for NATO membership following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine and was then told by Turkey that it had to first suppress the PKK’s activities.
The Turkish leader eventually lifted his veto at a meeting of the alliance in July, fueling expectations that Turkey’s parliament would ratify his decision soon after the legislature reconvened this month.
The weekend’s attack by the PKK, deemed a terrorist organization by both the US and European Union, will likely spur Ankara to pose fresh objections to Sweden’s NATO bid.
Erdogan may seek other concessions from Turkey’s western allies, such as reviving membership talks with the EU, easing visa restrictions for Turks and acquiring F-16 warplanes from the US, Ozcan said.
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