The bill, which intends to criminalise participation in terrorist organisations, will sentence anyone who participates in terrorist acts or collaborate with terrorist organisations to up to four years in prison. This includes anyone who engages in actions to promote, strengthen, or encourage a terrorist organisation.
Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom stated in an interview with the Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter in April that the legislation would go into effect on June 1. He also noted that the new law would ease Turkiye’s concerns. The PKK has “extensive work in Sweden to raise money and finance terrorist activities aimed at Türkiye,” the minister was cited daily.
Billstrom said that the organisation also utilises Sweden as a base for drug trafficking and other actions that threaten Swedish society.
Although Turkiye approved Finland’s NATO membership, it is waiting on Sweden to follow through on a trilateral pact negotiated in Madrid in June to resolve Ankara’s security concerns.
On Thursday, NATO foreign ministers hold an informal meeting in Oslo to discuss support for Ukraine and Sweden’s NATO membership ambition.
Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg explained the agenda, “I will also travel to Ankara in the near future to continue to address how we can ensure the fastest possible accession of Sweden.”
Sweden’s membership to NATO is also part of negotiations between the US and Turkiye. US President Joe Biden supports selling F-16s to Turkiye and Sweden to become a NATO member. Both issues were recently raised during congratulatory talks between Biden and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Both sides deny any correlation between the two subjects, but US Congress has already expressed the relation.
