Under new leader, Swedish parliamentary group urges more support for Kurds

COPENHAGEN, Denmark – Under a new leader, the Sweden-Kurdistan Parliamentary Network expects to focus on greater support for the Kurdish cause, including more trade, help in state-building and more focus on the embattled Syrian-Kurdish town of Kobane.

Vice-chairman Fredrik Malm, an MP from the Swedish Liberal Party, also urged increased support for the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in its war with the Islamic State (ISIS).

“Iraqi Kurdistan is a secular state in an unstable Middle East. As Sweden and the West we should support them in being able to survive in this unstable region,” Malm told Rudaw.

“We will make proposals directly to the government,” he added, urging Sweden to regard the KRG with a new eye. "We must not stop only at regarding the KRG as part of a chaotic Iraq, but look at other options, such as promoting trade."

The parliamentary network, which began in 2010, has gained greater support since the ISIS assaults on the Kurdistan Region in August, and on Kobane a month later.

Earlier this month, the group chose a new chairperson, Anna-Lena Sorenson, an MP from the Social Democratic party. Its new board also cuts through party lines, consisting of 15 members, one from each party.

“This means a stronger parliamentary support for the Kurdish cause, since it is not only one block that supports the Kurds,” Malm said, explaining Sorenson’s agenda. 

The group also is lobbying for an investigation into the whereabouts of the women, including more than 500 Yezidis, who have fallen into ISIS hands during offensives in Iraq and Syria.

 

Sweden’s immigrant population of some 80,000 Kurds is among the largest in Europe.  There are also six MPs with Kurdish backgrounds in the parliament.

Lawen Redar, an MP with a Kurdish background from the Swedish Social Democratic Party, urged Sweden to pressure Arab countries to find the missing girls, some of whom are believed to have been sold to rich men there.

Malm supported the idea but believed military support for the KRG’s Peshmerga forces is crucial to rescue the rest of the trapped girls.

"ISIS is not open to political dialogue. Hence there is only one way to save the girls: defeat ISIS militarily.”

While faced with new challenges and issues, the group also remains focused on not forgetting old atrocities:  it is working to designate March 16 as an international day against the use of chemical weapons. 

That was the day in 1988 when ousted Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s regime attacked the Kurdish town of Halabja with poison gas, killing some 5,000 civilians.

In 2012, Sweden became the first country in the world to recognize Saddam’s  massacres against the Kurds as genocide.

“Halabja is a symbol of one of the most evil acts the world has ever seen,” Malm said. “By recognizing their suffering we will give the descendants of the victims moral support,” he added.

Another member of the parliamentary group, the Social Democrat Roza Guclu Hedin, said: “Since chemical weapons were used in Syria, we still have to work to ban them and mark it internationally, appropriately on March 16."

She added that, under Sorenson’s leadership, she expected increased focus on Kobane: the group plans to invite organizations working in Kobane and in nearby areas to learn about the situation there.

“Our hope is that this information can help increase understanding, and make MPs put pressure on each party for support in various ways,” Hedin said.

Sardar Sharif, a doctoral researcher in international relations at the University of Dohuk, who for years worked in Europe, said that the Swedish network has an advantage in its support for the Kurds due to its wide party backing.

The pro-Kurdish initiatives in Germany and neighboring Denmark – also with large Kurdish immigrant populations -- often consist of left-wing parties, he explained.

“To achieve success as a pro-Kurdish lobby, there is a need for a cross-party group in the Swedish parliament in which all parties are represented," Sharif said.

"Since the Swedish group consists of one representative per party, it looks promising."