On 10 July, more than a year after Sweden officially applied to join Nato, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreed to "ensure the ratification" of Sweden's accession to the alliance, paving the way to Stockholm becoming Nato's 32nd member.

Erdogan’s decision came after a prolonged period of objections raised by Turkey, primarily related to concerns over Sweden's alleged support for Kurdish militants and the extradition of suspected terrorists.

Turkey has long urged Sweden to crack down on Kurdish separatists. As a result of repressions against Kurds following the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)’s armed struggle against the Turkish state in 1984, tens of thousands chose to leave the country, with the majority opting to live in Sweden.

As part of an agreement between Ankara and Stockholm, Sweden has made substantial commitments to enhance its counter-terrorism efforts against the PKK and the Fethullahist Terrorist Organization (FETO). To address Turkey's concerns, Sweden has amended its constitution and significantly expanded its co-operation against the PKK. Additionally, Sweden has amended its anti-terror laws just to please Ankara, which led to mass protests amid criticisms that it could potentially restrict freedom of speech.

The agreement also comes a month after Sweden agreed to extradite a self-proclaimed PKK supporter to Turkey amid the Nato bid, and a few days after the Stockholm district court found a Kurdish man guilty of attempted aggravated extortion and a firearms offence.  The man allegedly attempted to force a Kurdish businessman to pay money to fund the PKK.

The PKK is controversially designated as a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the US and the EU. While Ankara claims that the group targets civilians, others claim that the Turkish government has used the group as an excuse to target non-violent members of the country’s Kurdish minority, including a crackdown on teaching the Kurdish language.

Now, with the new deal agreed with Ankara, there are fears that Kurdish residents in Sweden could face the threat of deportation to Turkey, raising concerns about their safety and human rights. Many of those who fled persecution and have absolutely no connection to the PKK are now scared that they will be sent to a Turkish prison on the basis of their race. These fears were exacerbated after a political protest in Stockholm involving an effigy of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, after Ankara responded by escalating the number of extradition requests to Stockholm. The current figure sits at around 130 people.

Human rights organisations have expressed concerns about the situation faced by Kurdish individuals in Sweden. Civil Rights Defenders, a non-governmental organisation based in Stockholm, has urged the country’s government to “ensure that Sweden lives up to international human rights commitments in its handling of cases that may lead to deportations to Turkey.”

“Turkey is regularly criticised by the UN, the Council of Europe and local and international human rights organisations for not living up to international standards regarding the rule of law and human rights,” its statement from December 2022 stated. “Persons perceived by the Turkish regime as oppositional risk persecution, imprisonment and torture or other degrading or inhumane treatment in violation of international law. Deportations to Turkey, therefore, risk being in conflict with Sweden’s obligations under international law.”

The group also noted “serious structural deficiencies in the rule of law,” specifically the right of the Swedish Security Service to deem people as a threat to national security without judicial review.

These concerns were also echoed by an op-ed published by Aftonbladet in May, co-signed by numerous well-known writers and intellectuals, accusing Erdogan of treating Sweden “like Sweden is a province of Turkey.”