When Recep Tayyip Erdoğan finally signed off on Sweden’s accession to Nato late last month, there were sighs of relief from Stockholm to Washington DC. The Turkish president’s decision to approve the military alliance’s latest member – 20 months after it had asked to join – marked the closure of a fraught diplomatic chapter and now leaves Hungary’s Viktor Orbán the only figure standing between Sweden and Nato.
But, while political leaders are toasting the breakthrough, the mood in one Swedish community is far from celebratory. Members of the sizeable Kurdish population say that Stockholm’s diplomatic success has come at their expense and that they feel systematically targeted by the Swedish state.
“I have never been through such a difficult period in Sweden as now,” said Kurdo Baksi, 58, a Swedish Kurdish commentator and author who moved to Sweden from Turkey as a child.
An estimated 50,000-100,000 Kurds, including people from Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran, live in Sweden. In the almost two years since Sweden’s Nato application was submitted, Baksi believes, the sizeable group has been hit hard by the Swedish government’s attempts to appease Erdoğan’s demands. “The Kurds have suffered here [in Sweden]. I have suffered. Many need help,” he said.
Erdoğan has previously accused historically neutral Sweden of giving sanctuary to members of the Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK), despite the Scandinavian country becoming the first nation after Turkey to label it a terrorist group, a designation later adopted by the EU, UK and US.
Paul T Levin, director of the Stockholm University Institute for Turkish Studies, said the political mobilisation of Kurds in Sweden in recent years has been high, which has led to associations affiliated or aligned with the PKK becoming more prominent.
“While the PKK has been classified as a terrorist organisation since the 1980s in Sweden, authorities have been more lenient on it than in many other European countries,” he added.
In an effort to win over Erdoğan, say some, Swedish authorities are increasing surveillance of Kurdish people living in Sweden, subjecting asylum seekers to investigations by Säpo, the security police, and closing down the bank accounts of Kurdish charities. There are also reports of dozens of innocent people’s residence permits being stopped.
Last week, days after Turkey approved Sweden’s Nato application, it was announced that public broadcaster Sveriges Radio would be shutting its Kurdish newsroom – along with its Russian and Tigrinya services – on 1 April.
While the broadcaster has put this down to essential cost-cutting, and told the Guardian it has “no connection at all to Sweden’s Nato application”, the timing is unfortunate. Many Swedish Kurds are convinced it is part of a wider operation to curtail the community to appease Turkey.
As an influential figure, Baksi has been contacted by 42 Kurdish people in Sweden he says have had security reports submitted about them by Säpo to the migration office to stop their residence permits. He believes the total number of such cases is in the hundreds.
“These persons are not suspected for a crime but Säpo claims these persons are married to persons with Swedish citizenship involved ‘with possible terrorist activities’. If you live with a such person you support a terrorist, is Säpo’s theory.”
The atmosphere reminded him, he said, of the time after the 1986 assassination of Swedish prime minister Olof Palme, when the PKK was wrongly blamed – the prosecutor closed the investigation in 2020 because the suspect, a lone actor, had died.
CK, a 35-year-old graduate student who did not want his name published, claimed asylum in Sweden after being imprisoned for nine months in Turkey accused of links to the PKK, an allegation he strongly denies.
He has been waiting for nearly five years for his claim to be processed. He believes that, while not new, Säpo investigations into Kurdish applicants have been more widespread since Sweden’s Nato application.
Citing the closure of the Kurdish Red Crescent in Sweden, which said in December it was winding down after its bank account was shut down, he added: “They are step by step closing institutions in the Kurdish diaspora of Sweden.’ This is 100% related to … Turkish conversation with Sweden.”
Amineh Kakabaveh, a former Swedish member of parliament of Iranian Kurdish descent who previously had police protection due to threats on her life, is equally scathing about Stockholm’s Nato strategy.
“The world’s most democratic country, Sweden, has bent towards [one of] the most dictatorship countries in the world,” said Kakabaveh, who in 2022 was named by Ankara’s ambassador to Sweden as somebody he would like to see extradited to Turkey.
Many Swedish Kurds feel afraid to speak openly in the current environment, said Kakabayeh. “In Sweden we are always talking about values, human rights, security for people who are immigrants or asylum seekers, but now they are not safe.”
At a Kurdish restaurant in Hammarby Sjöstad in Stockholm, owner Cihanê Ruzer, 60, said he felt safe in Sweden, but that the country he moved to from Turkey in 1996 had undergone a significant shift since applying to join Nato.
“I came to Sweden because I knew that Sweden was among the countries that defended human rights,” he said. “Sadly Sweden has also left that line and gone over to the countries that have a political agenda.”
A spokesperson for Säpo said: “The security service is constantly working to counter and prevent threats against Sweden’s security. This was the case before Sweden’s Nato application and still is.
“As a security service we do not target specific minorities, ethnic or other groups. The work of the security service is targeted against individuals whom are or can pose a threat against Sweden’s security.
“Within the scope of the service’s work we also target activities of organisations labelled as terrorist groups by international bodies such as the EU or UN. One of those organisations is the PKK.”
The Swedish migration agency said it “examines cases according to existing legislation – for example asylum applications, citizenship applications and so on. It has nothing to do with the political process.”
The Guardian has contacted the Swedish government for comment.
