Senior Turkish officials, including President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, have reacted sharply to Finland and Sweden's request to join NATO, accusing the two countries of supporting the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and Syrian Kurdish forces.
A Swedish official told the Financial Times that "a significant number of Kurdish citizens live in Sweden. A number of the Swedish parliamentmembers are also Kurds. This country is active in the field of Kurdish issues. We are concerned that these cases will have a negative impact on Sweden's request."
In an interview with Reuters, Ibrahim Kalin, a senior Turkish official, accused Sweden of supporting Kurdish groups and implicitly made Sweden's support for NATO membership conditional on putting pressure on PKK supporters in the country. CNBC also considers Sweden as a supporter of the Syrian People's Defense Units (YPG), which Turkey refers to as the Syrian branch of the PKK.
The TV network has referred to the meeting of some Swedish government ministers with the leaders of the People's Defense Units. Currently, six members of the Swedish parliament are Kurds. According to Axius magazine, US officials are working to soften Turkey's current tough stance over Sweden and Finland's membership in NATO.
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