Скачать или смотреть Sweden's Left Party demands ending arms export to Turkey

The chairman of the Swedish Left Party (Vänsterpartiet) Jonas Sjöstedt asked the governemt to halt exporting arms to Turkey amid growing woes on the government of president Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s worsening human rights record.

Speaking in a debate on the European Council reports in Riksdag (Swedish Parliament), Sjöstedt directed his criticism to acting Prime Minister Stefan Löfven on December 17, 2018.

Sjöstedt expressed that conflicts in Syria and Yemen are the main causes for refugee crisis in Europe and suggested to impose EU-level arms embargo against countries such as Turkey, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates.

"...Turkey, among other things, through ethnic cleansing in Afrin contributes to major refugee disasters in the Syrian conflict. Stopping weapons export will work for the end of the conflicts and actually it will discourage people from being displaced" remarked Sjöstedt.

Swedish Prime Minister Löfven said there is currently no discussion of any arms embargo in the EU and recalled that Sweden has already amended its legislation to make arms sales more difficult for countries that do not follow democratic rules.

However, he did not signal a fresh policy change against these countries.

Sweden is among top ten weapon exporters in the world. Norway, the US and Japan are top buyers while United Arab Emirates and Pakistan import large amount of weapons from Sweden as well. Sweden recently added Philippine in her client list.