Rojava has ‘strong relations’ with Sweden: Kurdish official

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Northeast Syria (Rojava) administration enjoys strong ties with Sweden, said a Kurdish official on Monday. This comes as Ankara insists that Stockholm cut its support to Rojava if it wants to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO).  

Sweden, which has provided support to Rojava through aid organisations and whose foreign minister has received the administration’s officials several times, needs the approval of Turkey to enter NATO following threats by Russia. However, Ankara wants Stockholm to cut all sorts of support to Syrian Kurds in return for its approval. 

Elham Ahmed, president of the Executive Committee of the Syrian Democratic Council (SDC), the political wing of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), told Russian state media in an interview aired on Monday that they enjoy very good relations with Sweden. 

“We are in contact and we have strong relations with the Swedish government based on the fact that we, as the Syrian Democratic Council, are a political entity in Syria. We are in constant contact and talks, and we hope that there will not be any misbehavior in this regard,” she told Russia Today’s Arabic edition.  
 
Kurdish officials in Rojava have said that Stockholm has provided tens of millions of dollars of financial aid to the area through Kurdish and foreign organisations. Turkey has claimed that this support has gone to Kurdish fighters in Rojava which it considers to be a threat to its national security for their alleged links with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). 

PKK is an armed group fighting for increased rights of Kurds in Turkey but it is designated as a terrorist organization by Turkey and some Western countries, including Sweden. 

Sweden has denied directly supporting Syrian Kurds, saying the aid is given to humanitarian organisations operating in Syria.   

Sweden and Finland recently made bids to enter NATO following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Both Scandinavian countries are already close partners of NATO but by joining it they would gain the support of 30 member countries if attacked. NATO makes its decisions by consensus, meaning that both countries require the blessing of all 30 countries. 

Last month, Sweden and Finland submitted their formal applications to enter NATO but their bids were blocked by Turkey which has set a number of conditions to approve both countries’ bid, including suspension of all their alleged support to Syrian Kurds and putting an end to PKK activities at home. 

Ann Linde, Sweden’s foreign minister, is known for voicing her strong support of Syrian Kurds. In Ankara in October 2020, Linde told her Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu that Turkey must withdraw from Rojava. Her comments angered the Turkish minister but were cheered by Kurdish officials in Rojava. Linde has also voiced support for the inclusion of Syria’s Kurdish administration in the UN-sponsored constitutional committee aimed at finding a political end to the country’s civil war.