Turkey, Finland NATO deal endangers Kurds: Finnish politician

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A Kurdish politician in Finland said on Friday that Ankara’s ratification of Helsinki’s bid to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) might prove to be a source of danger for Kurds living in Finland.

The Turkish parliament late on Thursday accepted Finland’s bid to join NATO, after nearly a year of opposing Helsinki and Stockholm’s bids to join the military alliance over accusations the Nordic countries are a haven for groups and individuals that the Turkish state considers “terrorists.”

“We thought it was questionable that Finland and Sweden began negotiations with Turkey,” Gashaw Bibani, a Kirkuk-born member of Finland’s Left Alliance, told Rudaw on Friday.

Ankara, Stockholm and Helsinki signed a memorandum in June 2022 to address Turkey’s concerns. Among the measures Finland and Sweden agreed to take was extraditing alleged Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) members to Turkey.

“We believe that negotiation should have been held directly with NATO, or for [NATO Secretary General Jens] Stoltenberg himself to hold discussions with Finland, instead of obliging Finland and Sweden to make changes to their laws and mechanisms, and change their treatment of Kurds in their countries,” Bibani said.

In December, Sweden deported a Kurdish refugee to Turkey for suspected links to the PKK.

Any enlargement of NATO must be unanimously agreed by all member states. Turkey and Hungary objected to Finland’s application for months, but have both ratified the accession this week.

Bibani, who is running for a seat in the Finnish parliament in elections on Sunday, believed that submitting to Turkey’s demands could be dangerous for Kurds in Finland and Sweden.

“I still have questions and I am still not happy with the situation. This is a source of danger for many Kurds living here,” she said.

Saara-Sofia Siren, an MP from Finland's right-wing opposition National Coalition Party, said that her party is “very happy” about the prospect of Finland joining NATO, calling the step “necessary” for consolidating the country’s security.

She acknowledged that there have been some objections to the concessions Finland had to make to Turkey, but said “a very strong majority of Finnish MPs” are in favor of joining NATO.

Turkey continues to oppose Sweden’s candidacy, saying Stockholm has failed to address Ankara’s concerns. Sweden has a large and active Kurdish population.

The Swedish government in February said it was tightening its anti-terror laws, but Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson has said that Sweden cannot meet all of Turkey’s demands.

Kurds in Turkey are subject to systemic discrimination. Kurdish civil society organizations, political parties, cultural groups, and media organizations face problems operating freely and there have been multiple racially-motivated attacks on Kurds, as documented in the US State Department’s annual human rights report. Swedish media has reported on Turkish surveillance of Kurdish diaspora in Sweden.