Sweden’s new government will distance itself from the Kurdish YPG militia as it tries to secure Turkey’s agreement to join NATO, Sweden’s foreign minister told Radio Sweden on Saturday, Reuters reported.

The Syrian Kurdish YPG militia and its political offshoot the PYD are considered by Turkey to be an extension of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which launched an insurgency against Turkey in 1980 and is considered a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and Europe. Union.

Sweden, along with the United States and several other NATO countries, has supported the YPG in the fight against the Islamic State.

“The connection between these organizations and the PKK is too close”

However, Turkey has vowed to block Sweden’s bid to join NATO unless it stops supporting the group.

“There is too close a connection between these organizations and the PKK… for it to be good for our relations with Turkey,” Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billström told Swedish public radio.

“The main goal is Sweden’s membership in NATO,” he said.

The move came days before Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson traveled to Ankara to try to persuade Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan to allow Sweden to join the military alliance.

Sweden and Finland applied to join NATO earlier this year as a direct result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The request was approved by 28 out of 30 NATO countries. Both Nordic countries said this week they were optimistic Hungary would also drop its objections.