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Minister seeks to distance Sweden from Kurdish groups

Sweden's foreign minister on Saturday sought to distance Stockholm from the Kurdish YPG militia, days before the Scandinavian country's prime minister is to visit Ankara hoping to secure support for its NATO bid.

Published: 5 November 2022 17:00 CET
Minister seeks to distance Sweden from Kurdish groups
Swedish Minister of Foreign Affairs Tobias Billstrom. Photo: Jonathan NACKSTRAND/AFP

Sweden’s foreign minister on Saturday sought to distance Stockholm from the Kurdish YPG militia, days before the Scandinavian country’s prime minister is to visit Ankara hoping to secure support for its NATO bid.

“I think it is important that there is a distance to this organisation from the Swedish side”, Tobias Billstrom told broadcaster Sveriges Radio after he was asked about the YPG’s track record.”We think there are doubts and problems regarding those who are damaging our relationship with Turkey,” he said.

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Finland and Sweden dropped a decades-long policy of military non-alignment to seek NATO membership in May.

But Turkey has held back on ratifying their applications — focusing especially on Stockholm — for what it describes as leniency towards the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and other Kurdish groups. 

The PKK has for many years staged an insurgency against the Turkish state which has claimed tens of thousands of lives. It is designated as a terrorist organisation by Ankara and most of its Western allies.But the group’s Syrian offshoot, the People’s Protection Units (YPG), has been an important player in the US-led international alliance against the Islamic State group in Syria.

While Sweden has in the past expressed support for the YPG and its political arm the Democratic Union Party (PYD), the country’s new government appears to be changing that stance.

“There is too close a link between these organisations and the PKK, which is a terrorist organisation listed by the EU,” Billstrom said.

READ ALSO: Turkey warns Finland, Sweden must ‘take steps’ before NATO approval

Turkey will not formally approve Finland and Sweden’s membership of NATO until the two countries take the necessary “steps”, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told alliance chief Jens Stoltenberg on Friday.

All 30 NATO member states except Turkey and Hungary have ratified the accession of Sweden and Finland.

New Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson will visit Ankara on Tuesday to meet with Erdogan in a trip that Stockholm hopes will lead to Turkey’s approval.

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MILITARY

EXPLAINED: Is national service compulsory in Sweden?

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak recently revealed plans to introduce compulsory national service, referencing Sweden as an inspiration for this. But how does national service work in Sweden, and is it compulsory for everyone?

Published: 27 May 2024 15:19 CEST
EXPLAINED: Is national service compulsory in Sweden?

Although Sweden hasn’t formally been involved in a war since 1814, the country has had some sort of conscription system since the 17th century, excluding a seven-year window between 2010 and 2017, where it was scrapped (or more specifically, “suspended in peacetime”).

Historically, it applied to men only, but was extended to include women in 2010.

Is it mandatory?

Yes and no.

When a Swedish citizen turns 18, they receive a letter from The Swedish Defence Conscription and Assessment Agency asking for information on their health, interests and education, in order to determine whether they should be called up for compulsory military service, officially known as värnplikt (“duty to protect”). 

This document is sent out to all Swedes turning 18 in a given year, and it is mandatory to fill this in, with a few exceptions, such as people who receive benefits from the Social Insurance Agency or residential care homes for children and young people (like HVB-hem or SiS-hem).

Having said that, it is by no means every Swede turning 18 in a given year who actually ends up carrying out military service.

In 2023, the agency collected information on 102,286 young people in Sweden turning 18 that year, with 36,420 called up for testing.

If you don’t turn up to these tests, known in Swedish as mönstringen, you can be sentenced to brott mot totalförsvarsplikten or “crime against the total defence obligation”, which carries with it a fine of 2,000 kronor or up to a year in prison.

These tests at the Swedish Defence Conscription and Assessment Agency are mandatory, and include a theory test, a medical examination, eye and colour blindness tests, hearing tests, as well as an EKG test, pulse and blood pressure tests.

You’ll also need to do a general fitness test and a strength test, as well as an interview with a psychologist to determine whether you’re cut out for military training.

Each test will be scored separately, with your total points determining which course within the Swedish armed forces you’ll be assigned to. You’re allowed to express a preference, although you’re not guaranteed to get a position on the course of your choice. Military training (colloquially known as lumpen) takes between 9 and 15 months, depending on the course.

Not everyone who carries out these tests will actually be called up for military training – in 2023, 6,144 (around 6 percent of everyone turning 18 that year) were assigned a course within the Swedish army, where they were joined by an additional 1,166 individuals who had applied of their own accord. 

Those who pass the tests but who aren’t assigned a position in the army are placed in the reserves, alongside people who delayed their conscription (due to their studies, for example). People in this group could be called up to perform military service if Swedish security is placed on high alert.

What about conscientious objectors?

People who for religious or political reasons do not want to use weapons can apply to carry out weapon-free military service or vapenfri tjänst. 

This doesn’t mean that you won’t have to serve at all, but you could be assigned to civil basic training, which essentially means you’d help ensure that important services like healthcare, childcare or the fire services were still running if there was a crisis.

At the moment, there are no civil basic training courses for conscientious objectors running, although the government has the power to reintroduce these.

There is no programme in Sweden similar to UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s plans for 18-year-olds to dedicate one weekend a month volunteering in the community, for example by “delivering prescriptions and food to infirm people”.

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