Supporters of the PKK terrorist group and its Syrian wing YPG gathered in Stockholm on Saturday to chant terrorist propaganda and anti-Turkish slogans under police supervision.
They gathered at Norra Bantorget Square and marched to the Parliament building with rags symbolizing the terrorist group and a poster of its ringleader, Abdullah Öcalan.
The protesters carried banners with messages opposing Sweden’s ascension to NATO and chanted slogans against Türkiye and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Police took measures to ensure PKK/YPG supporters could complete the march and closed roads on the route to traffic.
They shared the protest in front of Parliament on social media.
In one video, they were seen carrying rags symbolizing the PKK/YPG as they opened a poster of Öcalan and burned an effigy of Erdoğan.
Saturday’s march echoed a series of similar incidents in the Nordic country this year.
As recent as last week, PKK/YPG supporters gathered outside the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm and assembled at Medborgarplatsen Square, demanding the cancellation of Sweden’s agreement with Türkiye in the NATO membership process.
The PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the U.S., the U.K. and the EU, which includes Sweden – has been waging a bloody terrorist campaign against the Turkish state since the 1980s and is responsible for the deaths of more than 40,000 people, including women, children and infants.
Sweden and Finland applied for NATO membership last year in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, abandoning policies of military non-alignment that had lasted through the Cold War. Türkiye approved Finland’s application earlier this year, but Swedish membership still awaits parliamentary ratification, both from Ankara and Hungary.
At the NATO summit in Vilnius in July, Erdoğan said he would send Sweden’s bid to the Turkish Parliament for discussions. However, Stockholm is still doubtful about an approval being issued this month and several sticking points complicate matters.
Ankara has been demanding stronger action from Stockholm to address the widespread presence of terrorist groups, as well as the Gülenist Terrorist Group (FETÖ), which orchestrated a defeated yet bloody coup in Türkiye in July 2016.
Sweden has only recently tightened its anti-terrorism laws to include prison terms of up to four years for people convicted of participating in an extremist organization in a way that is intended to promote, strengthen, or support such a group. But fugitive members of FETÖ still reside there.
In recent months, Swedish courts have rejected dozens of Turkish extradition requests. "Türkiye maintains its constructive stance regarding Sweden’s membership, but legislative amendments would be meaningless so long as PKK/YPG supporters organize demonstrations freely in that country," Erdoğan has said.
Türkiye has also criticized a series of demonstrations in both Sweden and Denmark at which the Quran, Islam’s holy book, was burned.