HDP co-chairs Pervin Buldan and Mithat Sancar met with Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde in Ankara. The foreign policy spokespersons of the HDP, Feleknas Uca and Hişyar Özsoy, also took part in the meeting at the Swedish embassy.

As the HDP subsequently announced, the meeting focused on an exchange on foreign policy issues such as Turkey's role in military and political developments in the Middle East, the eastern Mediterranean and the Caucasus, as well as relations between Turkey and the EU. Other topics of discussion were the conditions for a peaceful solution of the Kurdish question, the repression against the democratic opposition and civil society in Turkey and the violation of legal norms and human rights.

"Turkey must withdraw from Northern Syria"

Previously, the Swedish Foreign Minister had met with her Turkish counterpart Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu. At the subsequent joint press conference, Ann Linde said that she had expressed her opinion on Northern and Eastern Syria. The EU continued to call on Turkey to withdraw from the region.

Çavuşoğlu reacted in the usual way and threatened the EU with "three million refugees": "Who authorizes you to demand Turkey's withdrawal from Syria? Did Syria grant the Swedish government or the EU such authority? We don't want to divide Syria, but you demand our withdrawal in support of the PKK. Should we also withdraw from Idlib? You don't want that, because if we withdraw, three million refugees will come in."