(21 Jan 2023)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
++CLIENTS NOTE: TRANSLATIONS FOR SHOTS 3 AND 9 WERE UPDATED AT 1936GMT++
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Stockholm - 21 January 2023
++NIGHT SHOTS++
1. Protesters marching with banners chanting (Swedish) "No alliance with fascist states"
2. Protesters holding banner
3. Protesters chanting (Swedish) ” No alliance with fascist states” and “Erdogan upside down, no to NATO, yes to peace”
4. Effigy of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
5. Protesters addressing crowd
6. Protesters listening to speech
7. Protesters holding banner
8. Protester addressing crowd, people filming
9. Protesters chanting (Kurdish): “Woman, life, freedom”
STORYLINE:
A few hundred pro-Kurdish and anti-NATO activists marched through downtown Stockholm on Saturday.
Demonstrators waved flags of various Kurdish groups, including the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which has waged a decades-long insurgency against Turkey.
The PKK is considered a terrorist group in Turkey, the European Union and the United States, but its symbols aren't banned in Sweden.
The protesters also held up flags with the face of imprisoned Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan and walked over a photo of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Turkey on Saturday cancelled a planned visit by Sweden’s defence minister in response to anti-Turkish protests that increased tension between the two countries as Sweden seeks Turkey's approval to join NATO.
The bid by historically nonaligned Sweden and Finland to join NATO in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine has been held up by Ankara, which has accused Sweden in particular of being soft on Kurdish militants and other groups that Turkey considers security threats.
The Swedish government's efforts to improve relations with Turkey have been complicated by demonstrations by pro-Kurdish activists, which have infuriated Turkey's government.
All NATO members need to ratify in their parliaments the accession requests by Sweden and Finland, which were made after Russia's war on Ukraine prompted the Nordic countries to drop their longstanding policies of military nonalignment.
While Turkey says it has no objection to NATO's growth, it won't ratify the bids until its demands, which include extraditions of alleged terror suspects, are met.
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