Sweden says it’s not providing money, military aid to Kurds

STOCKHOLM (AP) — Sweden has denied it is providing any “financial assistance or military support” to Kurdish groups or entities in Syria — claims that Turkey’s using to back its opposition to Sweden’s and neighboring Finland’s historic bids to join NATO. Turkey is citing the Nordic countries’ perceived support for the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, and other groups that Turkey considers to be terrorists, as well as arms exports restrictions imposed against Ankara. “Sweden is a major humanitarian donor to the Syria crisis through global allocations to humanitarian actors,” Foreign Minister Ann Linde told the Aftonbladet newspaper Tuesday. She added that Sweden does not provide targeted support to Syrian Kurds or to the political or military structures in northeastern Syria.