Erdogan could be indicted for genocide

The charges come from deputies from left and green parties in Sweden and concern crimes committed in southeast Turkey, where the Turkish Army and Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a terrorist organisation also declared by Europe and the US, are fighting.

Thousands of people have lost their lives, and hundreds of homes have returned to uninhabitable since the end of the fragile truce in 2015.

According to lawmakers, Erdogan could be declared an arrest warrant in Sweden if local prosecutors decide on launching investigations.

One of the denouncing deputies, Carl Schlyter, said he hoped his colleagues in other EU countries would follow the same path.

Schlyter, quoted by the AFP, said he hoped this would influence Erdognai's policy by preventing the “from wandering across Europe and influencing events on the continent in the way he wants”.

Many Turkish ministers have recently been prevented from organising rallies in Europe following tensions between the EU and Ankara.

Israeli daily “Haretz” says this indictment is the first in its kind in Sweden, against a head of state. A law adopted in 2014 allows judges to investigate crimes against humanity worldwide, despite authors.

The law stipulates that anyone who committed murder in order to completely or in part destroy an ethnic group is guilty of <x0-genocide”.

The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) has launched its uprising in the province of Hakkar in 1984 and over 400,000 people -- mostly Kurds -- have died in fighting ever since.

Kurds, believed to be around 15 million in Turkey, seek more political rights in the country.