Turkey's Foreign Ministry on Saturday summoned the interim charge d'affaires of Sweden's Embassy in Ankara to convey a "strong reaction" over terrorist propaganda in Gothenburg.
According to the information obtained from diplomatic sources, upon learning of the terrorist propaganda carried out by the supporters of the PKK terrorist organization and its Syrian wings PYD and YPG in Sweden's Gothenburg on July 21, the interim Swedish charge d'affaires in Ankara was summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to receive Ankara's statement of strong opposition.
"In this context, our expectations for identifying the perpetrators of the action, taking the necessary legal and judicial measures and taking concrete steps in light of the commitments recorded in the tripartite memorandum were emphasized," diplomatic sources said.
The issue of terror propaganda arose after the topic of coordinating a joint fight against terrorist organizations with NATO allies came up last month during the alliance’s leaders summit in Madrid to discuss the membership of Sweden and Finland.
Turkey, Sweden and Finland pledged to tackle terrorism after Ankara had previously voiced objections to these countries joining NATO due to their support for terrorist organizations.
Spurred by Russia's war on Ukraine, the two countries applied to join NATO in May, shedding their traditional neutrality.
A trilateral agreement signed among the countries in June stipulates that Finland and Sweden will not provide support to the YPG, the PKK's Syrian offshoot, nor to FETÖ, the group behind the 2016 defeated coup in Turkey, and said Ankara extends full support to Finland and Sweden against threats to their national security.
Ankara has accused Finland and Sweden of providing a safe haven for PKK terrorists whose decadeslong insurgency against the Turkish state has claimed tens of thousands of lives.
Listed as a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union – of which Sweden and Finland are members – the PKK has waged an insurgency against Turkey since 1984. Tens of thousands of people have died in the conflict.
Turkish security forces discovered Swedish anti-tank weapons while carrying out a raid on a cave used by the PKK terrorists in northern Iraq within the scope of Operation Claw-Lock while Turkey also accused Sweden of providing financial aid to terrorist organizations in Syria.
Despite the recent agreement, incidents in both Sweden and Finland show that terrorist organization’s presence continues to be strong in the Scandinavian countries.
Similarly last week, sympathizers of the YPG/PKK terrorist organization held demonstrations in Finland's capital to protest the deal reached with Turkey.
Gathering outside the Finnish parliament in Helsinki, the demonstrators unfurled banners symbolizing the terrorist group. They also chanted slogans against the policies of President Sauli Niinisto and Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto.
Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu on Sunday had a phone call with Haavisto in which the two top diplomats discussed recent developments as well as the implementation of the trilateral agreement.
Turkey has especially been vocal against the acts of Sweden regarding terrorism.
Turkey to assess compliance
Within this scope, Turkey on Thursday said a new "permanent committee" would meet Finnish and Swedish officials in August to assess if the two nations are complying with Ankara's conditions to ratify their NATO membership bids.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has warned to "freeze" the process over Sweden and Finland's failure to extradite the suspects.
"If these countries are not implementing the points included in the memorandum that we signed, we will not ratify the accession protocol," Çavuşoğlu reaffirmed in a televised interview.
He said the committee would meet in August but provided no details.
Turkey's Parliament has broken for its summer recess and will not be able to hold a ratification vote before October.