Sweden’s Flamman newspaper launched a controversial competition on Tuesday. The newspaper’s editor-in-chief, Leonidas Aretakis, announced that they would award 10,000 Swedish kronor (1,000 euros) for "satirical drawings" of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Ankara has yet to comment on the competition, but it will likely draw condemnation from Türkiye, which is already at odds with the Nordic country over its blatant tolerance of the PKK terrorist group. The competition, indeed, is promoted as a reaction to Türkiye’s criticism of a demonstration by PKK supporters last week in Stockholm, during which the crowd hanged an effigy of Erdoğan.
The newspaper announced the competition with a drawing of Swedish artist Carl Johan De Geer (known for his "Desecrate The Flag" drawing). The newspaper replaced the Swedish flag in the original work by De Geer with a Turkish flag, with a slang word scrawled next to a "burning" crescent and star. It said it would publish the "best works" in the upcoming editions and set Jan. 20 as the deadline for submissions.
Türkiye has a say in the ratification of the membership bid of Sweden and Finland to the NATO alliance but only on Ankara’s conditions. Erdoğan said last week that the extradition of terrorists is a must for Sweden if it wants the right to join NATO.
"Türkiye has told Sweden its Parliament cannot ratify Sweden’s NATO membership if they do not extradite the terrorists they have," Erdoğan said, referring to Sweden and Finland’s commitment last June as part of an agreement to take a firmer stance against terrorism to join the alliance. "First of all, they need to extradite nearly 130 terrorists for their bids to pass our Parliament, (but) unfortunately, they are yet to do this," Erdoğan explained as he addressed a youth meeting in the southwestern Muğla province.
Citing a joint news conference he held last November with Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, Erdoğan said he told Sweden to extradite fugitive suspect Bülent Keneş to Türkiye, stressing the importance of the issue, as Keneş belongs to the terrorist Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ). Keneş, the former editor-in-chief of Today's Zaman daily and a suspected member of FETÖ, lives in Sweden.
Saying that demonstrations by PKK supporters are often seen on the streets of the capital Stockholm, Erdoğan underlined Türkiye repeatedly warned Sweden about this, but "despite our warnings, unfortunately, there was no action on stopping PKK/YPG demonstrations."
The Turkish president also said Parliament Speaker Mustafa Şentop canceled his Swedish counterpart Andreas Norlen's visit to Türkiye in response to recent open provocations by PKK supporters in Stockholm. "If they do not take a stand against this situation, it could strain our relations with Sweden even more," he added, just days after a demonstration in Stockholm directly threatened Erdoğan himself.