A Turkish TV channel – with links to the organization Gray Wolves – is trying to influence the Swedish parliamentary election, Expressen can tell you today.
Swedish Turks are urged in a news broadcast to vote for the [Swedish] Erdogan-friendly Muslim party Nyans and party leader Mikail Yüksel, 40.
– It is historic that a Swedish party leader is carried forward by a foreign power in a state like Turkey. If Swedish politics risks being remotely controlled from Ankara in the future, it constitutes a threat to national security, says MP Gulan Avci [The Liberals (Centre-right)].
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will meet in Madrid for a sensitive conversation ahead of this week’s NATO summit.
The news item about the [Swedish] Muslim party Nyans was shown last weekend on the Turkish TV channel Haber Global and has also been spread via social media.
On Youtube alone, the feature has been shown more than 180,000 times in nine days.
The news item states, among other things, that there will be a ballot box ahead of the Swedish parliamentary elections in the [Turkish] city of Kulu, where 50,000 eligible Swedish Turks live.
But this statement is incorrect, according to the Swedish embassy in Ankara. Three years ago, the honorary consulate in Kulu closed – where it was previously possible to vote in Swedish elections – and therefore residents with Swedish citizenship this year must go to the embassy in Ankara, the consulate general in Istanbul or the honorary consulate in Alanya. The honorary consulates in Izmir and in Mersin will provide postal votes, according to the Swedish embassy.
– With only 23,000 votes from a single constituency, we can enter parliament and be the party that keeps the balance, says Nyans party leader Mikail Yüksel, who himself comes from the [Turkish] city of Kulu, in the TV segment.
– The Nyans party is Sweden’s only pro-Turkey party that clearly distances itself from terrorism, the party leader continues.
The TV segment also interviews the mayor of Kulu, and he urges his countrymen to vote for Nyans.
– We Kulu citizens fully support our brother Mikail, he says.
At the same time, the text is displayed: “A Turkish party in Sweden. Wants help from his countrymen in the Swedish election.”
Reporter: “Now he is waiting for votes”
The news item ends with the reporter incorrectly claiming that Mikail Yüksel’s party can pass the four percent block to the Swedish parliament if all Swedish citizens originating from Kulu vote for him.
– Now he is waiting for votes from his citizens, the reporter concludes.
The TV channel Haber Global is controlled by Azerbaijani businessmen with links to the far-right Turkish party MHP, whose militant youth organization Gray Wolves was branded as terrorists in both France and Germany.
Three years ago, MHP’s party chairman Devlet Bahçeli visited Haber Global, and according to the TV channel’s twitter account, he thanked the management for their “stance against terrorists” and said that he “regularly follows the channel’s broadcasts”.
– This is exactly the type of separatism we in the Liberals have warned about. The goal of Nyans and the Turkish state media is to create division in Sweden where Turks and Muslims feel alienated. The new goal is to divide our country, I do not stand for that, says the Liberals’ Member of Parliament Gulan Avci, who herself came to Sweden as a Kurdish refugee from Turkey when she was five years old.
At the same time, she says that Nyans engages in “completely absurd statements and dangerous lies”.
– It creates division between Swedish Turks and the majority society in Sweden. All for the purpose of attracting voters in the Swedish election.
– Voters must be told that a vote for Nuance means a vote for Erdogan.
In what way do you think Nyans poses a security threat to Sweden?
– In many ways. Through the close cooperation with the AKP regime party, Swedish domestic policy can be influenced from Ankara via Nyans if they enter our democratic assemblies after the election. We must take this development very seriously. The last time we saw this type of infiltration was through the former Greens Minister for Housing Minister Mehmet Kaplan. We must not be naive about this development. I hope that the Security Police closely follow what is happening now in Sweden.
How do you think the Swedish government has so far responded to Nyans?
– The Social Democrats have not dared to take up the issue. They are terrified that Nyans will take voters away from them. That is why they put their own party interests before Sweden’s security. It is very poorly handled.
Meeting between Andersson and Erdogan
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will meet in the Spanish capital Madrid – where the NATO summit will begin on Wednesday.
As recently as last Saturday, they talked on the phone, and afterwards the Prime Minister tweeted:
“We agreed on the importance of making progress ahead of next week’s NATO summit in Madrid, where I look forward to meeting with President Erdogan and other Allied leaders.”
– Now Sweden – and Finland – do not participate in the summit itself, but at the points on the agenda where the two partner countries are invited or if separate contacts are arranged with Turkey, it is important for Magdalena Andersson to emphasize that she takes the Turkish concern for the terrorist threat in all seriousness, states Ann-Sofie Dahl, associate professor of international politics and a member of the think tank Atlantic Council – at the same time one of Sweden’s foremost experts on NATO and security policy.
– With a breakthrough of some kind, Erdogan would of course end up in the spotlight where he most of all wants to be, and a new date for processing the applications could be set. But that is probably a very optimistic scenario.
Minister of Justice: “Extremely dangerous”
Minister of Justice Morgan Johansson recently spoke to Expressen about the Nyans party and called it “extremely dangerous”.
– It seems to be a party that wants to strike a wedge between Muslims and the rest of society. We have a completely opposite view. We must have a policy that holds together no matter what religion you believe in.
At the same time, Morgan Johansson dismissed the image that Nyans leader Mikail Yüksel gives of Sweden, as racist and Islamophobic.
– It is totally wrong, I claim. But I know that they are trying to put that image with the help of influencers abroad, said the Minister of Justice.
Denies connection to Erdogan’s party
Nyans party leader Mikail Yüksel – who was expelled from the Center Party ahead of the 2018 election after it emerged that he had links to the Turkish, right-wing extremist group Gray Wolves – now tells Expressen that the party wants to reach out to Turkish-speaking Swedes.
– Therefore, it is important to get space in Turkish news that is followed by Swedish Turks. We have also been on Somali, Bosnian, Pakistani and Arab news. We are trying new methods to reach more groups.
At the same time, Mikail Yüksel denies that there were any links between Nyans and Erdogan’s AKP party.
– I have never had contact with anyone from the AKP. Had we had connections, I would not have hidden it. I am absolutely convinced that people know that I am an honest politician. But I see no problem in engaging in dialogue with all parties in Turkey.
Has Nyans received any financial support from the AKP?
– No, the income only consists of membership fees and donations from our sympathizers. My party friends and I have donated large sums.
What do you answer to those who believe that Nyans poses a security threat to Sweden?
– I just want to laugh. It is a racist statement by politicians who are worried about losing votes to us. But I’m not surprised. I have taken all this into account when we decided to start Nyans. For us, Sweden’s interest takes precedence over everything else.
I do not understand the recent beef between Turkey and Sweden. Is it all about NATO application and Turkey’s ties to Putin ? Why are they not bothering Finland as much ?
So it’s ok to do this for the Turkish elections as well.
At least you get what pkk is thats a progress
Kulu is legit the butthole of Turkey.
They are the turkish version of hillbillies, met a few people from there.
Why would you move here and then vote for a party that’s friendly to the autocrat that is actively making your home country worse? Or if you actually like him and the direction Turkey is moving in, just.. move back?
Nothing new. Poland and Hungary have massively tried to influence the French presidential election campaign by supporting Marine Le Pen.
All countries have an interest in supporting a candidate who will coincide with their interest.
All of the western media is making propoganda of hdp and trying to influence Turkish elections more than this. It is so funny that westroids are crying about it.
Who would have thought
It is funny that a party that wants to get rid of freedom of speech call themselves ’nuanced’.
I’m so dissapointed, Turks really need to focus on their own country, there is plenty to fix right there.
It is “democracy” when the Kurdish citizens elect their representative to push their middle east separatist agenda, at the cost of the national security of the entire country. When Turkish citizens want to elect a representative though, it is unacceptable because Kurdish people say that bird people are bad.
​
What’s even funnier is that that person who makes up this “Grey Wolves” nonsense is a Kurdish Terrorist organization supporter(PKK) Gulan Avci.
​
Talk about conflict of interest and objective journalism…
This type of interference isn’t limited to Sweden either. Something even more serious is happening in the US…
A Turkish American (Mehmet Oz or Dr. Oz) is running for the US senate. By an extraordinary chance, this Turkish American is also running in the same state (Pennsylvania) that Fethullah Gülen has claimed asylum.
Mr. Oz doesn’t live in Pennsylvania. Has never lived in the state and I am convinced that he’s only running in Pennsylvania to gain access to Fethullah Gülen.
13 comments
A Turkish TV channel – with links to the organization Gray Wolves – is trying to influence the Swedish parliamentary election, Expressen can tell you today.
Swedish Turks are urged in a news broadcast to vote for the [Swedish] Erdogan-friendly Muslim party Nyans and party leader Mikail Yüksel, 40.
– It is historic that a Swedish party leader is carried forward by a foreign power in a state like Turkey. If Swedish politics risks being remotely controlled from Ankara in the future, it constitutes a threat to national security, says MP Gulan Avci [The Liberals (Centre-right)].
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will meet in Madrid for a sensitive conversation ahead of this week’s NATO summit.
The news item about the [Swedish] Muslim party Nyans was shown last weekend on the Turkish TV channel Haber Global and has also been spread via social media.
On Youtube alone, the feature has been shown more than 180,000 times in nine days.
The news item states, among other things, that there will be a ballot box ahead of the Swedish parliamentary elections in the [Turkish] city of Kulu, where 50,000 eligible Swedish Turks live.
But this statement is incorrect, according to the Swedish embassy in Ankara. Three years ago, the honorary consulate in Kulu closed – where it was previously possible to vote in Swedish elections – and therefore residents with Swedish citizenship this year must go to the embassy in Ankara, the consulate general in Istanbul or the honorary consulate in Alanya. The honorary consulates in Izmir and in Mersin will provide postal votes, according to the Swedish embassy.
– With only 23,000 votes from a single constituency, we can enter parliament and be the party that keeps the balance, says Nyans party leader Mikail Yüksel, who himself comes from the [Turkish] city of Kulu, in the TV segment.
– The Nyans party is Sweden’s only pro-Turkey party that clearly distances itself from terrorism, the party leader continues.
The TV segment also interviews the mayor of Kulu, and he urges his countrymen to vote for Nyans.
– We Kulu citizens fully support our brother Mikail, he says.
At the same time, the text is displayed: “A Turkish party in Sweden. Wants help from his countrymen in the Swedish election.”
Reporter: “Now he is waiting for votes”
The news item ends with the reporter incorrectly claiming that Mikail Yüksel’s party can pass the four percent block to the Swedish parliament if all Swedish citizens originating from Kulu vote for him.
– Now he is waiting for votes from his citizens, the reporter concludes.
The TV channel Haber Global is controlled by Azerbaijani businessmen with links to the far-right Turkish party MHP, whose militant youth organization Gray Wolves was branded as terrorists in both France and Germany.
Three years ago, MHP’s party chairman Devlet Bahçeli visited Haber Global, and according to the TV channel’s twitter account, he thanked the management for their “stance against terrorists” and said that he “regularly follows the channel’s broadcasts”.
– This is exactly the type of separatism we in the Liberals have warned about. The goal of Nyans and the Turkish state media is to create division in Sweden where Turks and Muslims feel alienated. The new goal is to divide our country, I do not stand for that, says the Liberals’ Member of Parliament Gulan Avci, who herself came to Sweden as a Kurdish refugee from Turkey when she was five years old.
At the same time, she says that Nyans engages in “completely absurd statements and dangerous lies”.
– It creates division between Swedish Turks and the majority society in Sweden. All for the purpose of attracting voters in the Swedish election.
– Voters must be told that a vote for Nuance means a vote for Erdogan.
In what way do you think Nyans poses a security threat to Sweden?
– In many ways. Through the close cooperation with the AKP regime party, Swedish domestic policy can be influenced from Ankara via Nyans if they enter our democratic assemblies after the election. We must take this development very seriously. The last time we saw this type of infiltration was through the former Greens Minister for Housing Minister Mehmet Kaplan. We must not be naive about this development. I hope that the Security Police closely follow what is happening now in Sweden.
How do you think the Swedish government has so far responded to Nyans?
– The Social Democrats have not dared to take up the issue. They are terrified that Nyans will take voters away from them. That is why they put their own party interests before Sweden’s security. It is very poorly handled.
Meeting between Andersson and Erdogan
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will meet in the Spanish capital Madrid – where the NATO summit will begin on Wednesday.
As recently as last Saturday, they talked on the phone, and afterwards the Prime Minister tweeted:
“We agreed on the importance of making progress ahead of next week’s NATO summit in Madrid, where I look forward to meeting with President Erdogan and other Allied leaders.”
– Now Sweden – and Finland – do not participate in the summit itself, but at the points on the agenda where the two partner countries are invited or if separate contacts are arranged with Turkey, it is important for Magdalena Andersson to emphasize that she takes the Turkish concern for the terrorist threat in all seriousness, states Ann-Sofie Dahl, associate professor of international politics and a member of the think tank Atlantic Council – at the same time one of Sweden’s foremost experts on NATO and security policy.
– With a breakthrough of some kind, Erdogan would of course end up in the spotlight where he most of all wants to be, and a new date for processing the applications could be set. But that is probably a very optimistic scenario.
Minister of Justice: “Extremely dangerous”
Minister of Justice Morgan Johansson recently spoke to Expressen about the Nyans party and called it “extremely dangerous”.
– It seems to be a party that wants to strike a wedge between Muslims and the rest of society. We have a completely opposite view. We must have a policy that holds together no matter what religion you believe in.
At the same time, Morgan Johansson dismissed the image that Nyans leader Mikail Yüksel gives of Sweden, as racist and Islamophobic.
– It is totally wrong, I claim. But I know that they are trying to put that image with the help of influencers abroad, said the Minister of Justice.
Denies connection to Erdogan’s party
Nyans party leader Mikail Yüksel – who was expelled from the Center Party ahead of the 2018 election after it emerged that he had links to the Turkish, right-wing extremist group Gray Wolves – now tells Expressen that the party wants to reach out to Turkish-speaking Swedes.
– Therefore, it is important to get space in Turkish news that is followed by Swedish Turks. We have also been on Somali, Bosnian, Pakistani and Arab news. We are trying new methods to reach more groups.
At the same time, Mikail Yüksel denies that there were any links between Nyans and Erdogan’s AKP party.
– I have never had contact with anyone from the AKP. Had we had connections, I would not have hidden it. I am absolutely convinced that people know that I am an honest politician. But I see no problem in engaging in dialogue with all parties in Turkey.
Has Nyans received any financial support from the AKP?
– No, the income only consists of membership fees and donations from our sympathizers. My party friends and I have donated large sums.
What do you answer to those who believe that Nyans poses a security threat to Sweden?
– I just want to laugh. It is a racist statement by politicians who are worried about losing votes to us. But I’m not surprised. I have taken all this into account when we decided to start Nyans. For us, Sweden’s interest takes precedence over everything else.
I do not understand the recent beef between Turkey and Sweden. Is it all about NATO application and Turkey’s ties to Putin ? Why are they not bothering Finland as much ?
So it’s ok to do this for the Turkish elections as well.
At least you get what pkk is thats a progress
Kulu is legit the butthole of Turkey.
They are the turkish version of hillbillies, met a few people from there.
Why would you move here and then vote for a party that’s friendly to the autocrat that is actively making your home country worse? Or if you actually like him and the direction Turkey is moving in, just.. move back?
Nothing new. Poland and Hungary have massively tried to influence the French presidential election campaign by supporting Marine Le Pen.
All countries have an interest in supporting a candidate who will coincide with their interest.
All of the western media is making propoganda of hdp and trying to influence Turkish elections more than this. It is so funny that westroids are crying about it.
Who would have thought
It is funny that a party that wants to get rid of freedom of speech call themselves ’nuanced’.
I’m so dissapointed, Turks really need to focus on their own country, there is plenty to fix right there.
It is “democracy” when the Kurdish citizens elect their representative to push their middle east separatist agenda, at the cost of the national security of the entire country. When Turkish citizens want to elect a representative though, it is unacceptable because Kurdish people say that bird people are bad.
​
What’s even funnier is that that person who makes up this “Grey Wolves” nonsense is a Kurdish Terrorist organization supporter(PKK) Gulan Avci.
​
Talk about conflict of interest and objective journalism…
This type of interference isn’t limited to Sweden either. Something even more serious is happening in the US…
A Turkish American (Mehmet Oz or Dr. Oz) is running for the US senate. By an extraordinary chance, this Turkish American is also running in the same state (Pennsylvania) that Fethullah Gülen has claimed asylum.
Mr. Oz doesn’t live in Pennsylvania. Has never lived in the state and I am convinced that he’s only running in Pennsylvania to gain access to Fethullah Gülen.