The PKK Foreign Relations Committee said in a press release that “in recent days, a number of Swedish officials have been trying to criminalize the Kurdistan Freedom Movement by making unwarranted, baseless and untrue accusations against our party and movement.”

The statement added: “We would like to state from the outset that the PKK is a political party that works for the liberation of Kurdistan and the freedom of the Kurdish people and has paid a great price for this. Our party is a movement committed to human, moral, conscientious and democratic values. We have been doing politics based on these values for 45 years since the party´s foundation in 1978. Consequently, our party has no relations with criminal individuals and circles and is against such circles.

Despite the fact that this is the truth, the Turkish state and its collaborators do not hesitate to resort to all kinds of lies, deceit and slander in order to criminalize our party. Ambassador Oscar Stenström, the head of the delegation negotiating with Turkey on behalf of Sweden, has recently joined the bandwagon of these baseless accusations. In an interview with a Swedish radio channel, Mr. Stenström said that our party was financed by a number of criminals in Sweden who are involved in crimes such as extortion, weapons and drugs, and mentioned the name Kurdish Fox."

The statement continued: “Mr. Stenström's statement is far from the truth. There is no such thing. This is an entirely fabricated accusation to please Mr. Stenström´s Turkish interlocutors. The statement also contains inconsistencies within itself. We do not know who the "Kurdish Fox" is and we have no relationship with him. In Turkey, even a word in favor of the PKK is a criminal offense and punishable by imprisonment. There are many people who have come from Turkey and sought asylum in Sweden because they were accused of saying something in favor of the PKK or giving food to a PKK member. Mr. Stenström claims that the "Kurdish Fox" is wanted in Sweden for crimes he committed and that he helped the PKK in Sweden, but that he escaped to Turkey and is at large there. Any way one looks at it, this is a very inconsistent statement.”

The PKK underlined that “such statements are not limited to Mr. Stenström alone. Recently, in the framework of the NATO membership negotiations, in order to please the Turkish government and Erdogan, a number of government officials, such as Foreign Minister Tobias Billström, have been making similar statements. We would like to reject these accusations outright. The Swedish government can improve its relations with Turkey, nobody has anything against that. But we say: Don't negotiate and bargain over us, over the Kurds, don't support Erdogan who has blood on his hands and is committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in our country.

The Kurdish people and the Swedish people have a long-standing and constantly growing friendship. We find this friendship valuable, attach great importance to it and want it to develop further. The conscientious Swedish people and public know and see for what purpose these baseless statements and accusations are made. No matter what anyone says, we will continue to protect humanitarian, moral, conscientious and democratic values, walk on the right path, liberate our country from occupation and free our people.”