Erdogan Increases Demand to Sweden, Finland to ‘130 Terrorists’
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has demanded the extradition of “130 terrorists” from NATO accession applicants Sweden and Finland in a statement on January 15, Reuters reports.
Turkey and Hungary are the last holdouts in endorsing the Nordic countries’ bids to join the transatlantic military alliance following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Erdogan has demanded the extradition of several Turkish nationals residing in the two countries, particularly in Sweden, as a key demand for accession. The list include alleged members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), the Gulenist movement, Turkish left-wing parties, as well as a few people wanted for crimes such as smuggling.
The Turkish government has revised its list upwards several times since Sweden and Finland signed NATO’s Accession Protocol last July – from 33, to 45, to 73, and now 130 wanted persons.
The vast majority of the individuals wanted by the Turkish government have not been convicted of any crime in Sweden or Finland; many are now nationals of one of the two countries. They thus cannot legally be sent back.
“We stress that in Finland and in Sweden we have freedom of expression. We cannot control it,” Finnish speaker of parliament, Matti Vanhanen, says.
Last December, Sweden’s Supreme Court blocked the extradition of a Turkish journalist accused of participating in the 2016 coup in Turkey. The extradition of four other individuals was rejected by Sweden’s top court as well. According to the BBC, those wanted by Ankara include teachers and business owners with only vague ties to any political party.
Nevertheless, Sweden’s government has abided by a non-binding memorandum the two NATO hopefuls signed with the Turkish government in June 2022. It deported a convicted PKK member in December. At least two other people have been handed over to Ankara.
The government’s in Stockholm and Helsinki attribute Erdogan’s remarks to an incident in the Swedish capital last week, when an effigy of the Turkish president appeared to be strung up by protestors.
Yet a senior official within the Turkish government made clear that his government was “unlikely” to ratify the Nordic bids under any circumstances until after Turkish general elections in May 2023.