- Yaroslav Lukov
- BBC News
4 hours ago
Turkish Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said that Ankara wants 12 suspects from Finland and 21 from Sweden
Turkey announced that it will pressure Finland and Sweden to extradite 33 suspects in “terrorism” cases, under an agreement that Ankara will not object to the two countries’ efforts to join NATO.
Turkey’s Justice Minister, Bekir Bozdag, said Ankara would ask them “to fulfill their promises.”
Ankara accuses Finland and Sweden of harboring Kurdish militants.
The two northern European countries agreed late on Tuesday to “examine Turkey’s pending extradition or extradition requests for terrorism suspects as a matter of urgency.”
Finland and Sweden announced last May their intention to join the 30-member Western Defense Military Alliance, in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Turkey had initially threatened to veto their request, but after four hours of talks at the NATO summit in Madrid, the Spanish capital, the three countries reached an agreement.
NATO leaders are expected to formally invite Finland and Sweden to join the alliance before the meeting concludes.
Russia criticized NATO’s expansion, describing it as a “very destabilizing factor”, and the Interfax news agency quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying that “the Madrid summit confirms the bloc’s path towards a strong containment of Russia.”
Turkey’s justice minister called on Finland to extradite six members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and six others from the movement of the exiled Turkish cleric, Fethullah Gulen.
“We will seek to extradite the terrorists,” Bozdag said.
Turkey also wants Sweden to extradite 11 members of the PKK and 10 members of the Gulen group.
The Kurdistan Workers’ Party, which was formed in the late seventies of the last century, began an armed struggle against the Turkish government in 1984, calling for the establishment of an independent Kurdish state within Turkey.
Meanwhile, Turkey blames Gulenists for orchestrating a failed coup attempt against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in 2016.
photo released, Getty Images
NATO membership ends more than 200 years of Swedish non-alignment
Although the European Union, along with the United States and the United Kingdom, consider the PKK a terrorist group, they view the Gülen movement from a different perspective.
Finland and Sweden have not commented on the Turkish request yet.
Under Tuesday’s tripartite memorandum, Helsinki and Stockholm agreed to “suspend the activities of the PKK” and not support Gulen’s followers, and the parties also pledged not to support the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party and its military wing, the People’s Protection Units, which Ankara insists is an extension of the PKK.
The two countries also pledged to lift restrictions on arms sales to Turkey.
Finnish President Sauli Niinisto said the three countries signed the agreement “to offer their full support against threats to each other’s security,” while Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson said it was a “very important step for NATO.”
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s office said he “got what he wanted”, but Kurdish activists criticized the deal.
Amina Kakapavi, a Swedish lawmaker of Iranian Kurdish origin, described the agreement as a “dark day” for Sweden, adding that Stockholm is simply sacrificing the Kurds.
By joining NATO, Sweden will end more than 200 years of non-alignment, as well as Finland, which adopted a policy of military neutrality after a bitter defeat by the Soviet Union during World War II.
analysis
Maddy Savage – Stockholm
Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson was visibly happy in Madrid when she said on a Swedish TV morning program that she had fallen asleep after a “promised day” that finally saw Turkey agree to join Sweden and Finland to NATO.
The move came in stark contrast to the reaction of Emine Kakapafe, an independent lawmaker and one of Sweden’s 100,000-strong Kurdish diaspora, some of whom have become global political celebrities in recent weeks, as she appeared on international television saying that Sweden should not provide Concessions to Turkey, which it described as an Islamic dictatorship.
Kakapava also called Tuesday a “black day in Swedish political history” and said Kurds are being sacrificed for NATO membership.
Sweden had indicated earlier that it would continue to support the Kurdish People’s Protection Units, which is fighting the terrorist organization Islamic State in Syria, but the NATO agreement indicates that the situation will not be the case, because Turkey considers the movement’s political arm as a cover for the PKK.
Although many Kurds in Sweden support the female parliament member, she has little influence, and about 80 percent of parliament members support Sweden’s bid to join NATO.