As part of its efforts to obtain Turkey's approval to join NATO, Sweden announces its disassociation from Kurdish factions

Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom said today, Saturday, that his country's new government will distance itself from the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) factions, at a time when Stockholm is trying to obtain Turkey's approval to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

Turkey views the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units and its political wing, the Democratic Union Party (PYD), as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, which declared an insurgency against Turkey in 1980, and considers Turkey, the United States and the European Union a "terrorist organization."

"There is a very close link between these organizations and the PKK... which benefits from the good relationship between us and Turkey... the main goal is Sweden's membership in NATO," Billstrom told Swedish state radio.

This statement comes just days before Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Christerson travels to Ankara to try to persuade Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to allow Sweden to join the alliance.

Erdogan had confirmed in a meeting with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg on Friday that Ankara would agree to the membership of Sweden and Finland after they took the measures demanded by them.

The Turkish presidency said, in a statement after the meeting, that "President Erdogan stressed that the format and timing of the ratification process will be determined by the steps that the two countries still have to take."

Turkey has blocked Sweden and Finland's entry to the alliance since last May, accusing the two Scandinavian countries of harboring activists from the Kurdistan Workers' Party and the People's Protection Units.

To bypass Turkey's objections, the three countries signed a memorandum of understanding on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Madrid last June, dealing in particular with requests for extradition.

Sweden and Finland submitted a request to join the alliance earlier this year as a direct result of the Russian war on Ukraine, and 28 of the 30 members of the alliance agreed to the request, while Turkey and Hungary have not yet ratified Sweden and Finland's membership in the alliance, knowing that Granting membership requires the approval of all member states.