SpaceWar.com - Your World At War
Turkey lashes out at Kurdish group in Sweden over tweet
Istanbul, Jan 12 (AFP) Jan 12, 2023
Turkey lashed out Thursday at a video posted by a Kurdish group in Sweden calling President Recep Tayyip Erdogan a "dictator" and showing him swinging by his legs from a rope.

A tweet by the Rojava Committee of Sweden on Wednesday compared Erdogan to Italy's Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, who was hung upside down after his execution in the closing days of World War II.

"History shows how dictators end up," the group wrote above a video showing pictures of Mussolini's 1945 execution and then a dummy painted to look like Erdogan swinging on a rope.

"It is time for Erdogan to resign. Take this chance and quit so that you don't end up hanging upside down on (Istanbul's) Taksim Square."

The Rojava Committee tweet came as NATO member Turkey is piling pressure on Sweden and Finland to clamp down on Kurdish groups it views as "terrorists".

The Nordic neighbours still need Turkey's approval of their NATO membership bids, which came in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Sweden, with its larger Kurdish diaspora, has particularly angered Turkey.

Ankara has dug in its heels during protracted negotiations that hinge on the extent to which Sweden is ready to meet Turkey's demand to extradite Kurdish suspects and prosecute groups such as the Rojava Committee.

Erdogan's chief spokesman said Turkey condemned the Kurdish group's tweet "in the strongest possible terms.

"We urge the Swedish authorities to take necessary steps against terrorist groups without further delay," spokesman Fahrettin Altun tweeted.

His message came in direct response to a tweeted statement from Sweden's Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom condemning the video.

Stockholm supports "an open debate about politics" but "distances itself from threats and hatred against political representatives", Billstrom wrote.

"Portraying a popularly elected president as being executed outside city hall is abhorrent."

The Rojava Committee has developed a history of staging controversial protests in Sweden that attack Turkey for its Kurdish policies.

Turkey has been battling a decades-long insurgency against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has claimed tens of thousands of lives.

But it has also used its fight against the PKK to justify prosecuting Kurdish politicians and support groups.

Turkey's top court is now weighing whether to ban the country's main Kurdish-backed party ahead of elections expected before June.


ADVERTISEMENT




Space News from SpaceDaily.com
Maven stays silent after routine pass behind Mars
Sun boundary map tracks shifting Alfven surface over solar cycle
Mission Space to fly second space weather payload with Rogue Space

24/7 Energy News Coverage
Molecular contacts push tandem solar cells to 31.4 percent efficiency
Asymmetric side chain design boosts thick film organic solar cell efficiency
New analysis links lead cooled reactor corrosion to steel microstructure

Military Space News, Nuclear Weapons, Missile Defense
Autonomous DARPA project to expand satellite surveillance network by BAE Systems
Momentus joins US Space Force SHIELD contract vehicle
IAEA calls for repair work on Chernobyl sarcophagus

24/7 News Coverage
UAlbany Atmospheric Scientist Proposes Innovative Method to Reduce Aviation's Climate Impact
Digital twin successfully launched and deployed into space
Robots that spare warehouse workers the heavy lifting



All rights reserved. Copyright Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.