On Monday, February 6, 2023, a demonstration «End of Fascism in Turkey» was organized by anarchist group «Autonomy» in support of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and its leader Abdullah Öcalan in Oulu, Turkey. At the rally, a scarecrow depicting Recep Erdoğan was dragged through the city center by a crowd with PKK flags.
“Finland violates its own legislation, EU legislation and international human rights conventions by agreeing to Turkey’s demands for the extradition of people,” the protest organizers wrote in a Facebook post, referring to the memorandum of understanding, signed by Finland and Sweden with Turkey in Madrid last summer. “Since last summer, Erdoğan has been blackmailing Finland for NATO membership. More recently, he made vague threats that Finland should not make the «same mistakes» as Sweden,” the organizers continued.
The National Public Broadcaster announced the demonstration in advance. According to Yle, the plan to discredit Turkish President Recep Erdoğan was almost identical to what happened in Stockholm earlier in January and caused an international scandal, provoking a series of anti-Turkish provocations. In January, an image reminiscent Erdoğan with PKK flags was hung in the central Stockholm.
Earlier, the EU and Finland classified the PKK as a terrorist organization. A couple of months ago, on Independence Day 2022, the police banned demonstrators in Helsinki from displaying the flags of the PKK and other Kurdish organizations, but yesterday in Oulu, the police allowed flags to fly.
The provocation took place in Finland after Turkey became a key player in considering Finland and Sweden’s applications to join NATO. In recent days, Ankara hinted that Finland could be accepted into the military alliance as a full member of NATO, even if Sweden’s application is not approved by the country’s parliament. The reasons for the rejection of Sweden’s application to join NATO were the refusal to comply with the trilateral agreement with NATO signed in Madrid in the summer of 2022, and several anti-Turkish provocations in Sweden initiated by Kurdish organizations.
