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Sweden and Finland must extradite dozens of political opponents that Ankara considers to be terrorists in order for Turkey to approve their joint NATO bid, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Sunday.
“First of all, they need to extradite nearly 130 terrorists in order for their bids to pass our parliament; unfortunately, they have yet to do this,” Erdoğan said at a youth rally, according to state news agency Anadolu.
Hungary and Turkey are the only two countries that still need to ratify the joint NATO bid of Sweden and Finland.
While Budapest has said it would support the military bloc’s latest expansion and sign off on it early this year, Ankara has yet to follow suit.
Ankara has dragged its feet on pledging support for the accession bid, seeking conditions for its approval. Sweden and Finland inked a deal last June to ease Turkey’s concerns over their alleged support to Kurdish organizations. Last month, a Swedish court blocked the extradition of an exiled Turkish journalist identified by Erdoğan as one of the individuals Stockholm had to extradite to get Turkey’s approval.
“Turkey sometimes names people that they would like to have extradited from Sweden, and it’s well-known that Swedish legislation on that … is very clear: that courts [make] those decisions, there is no room for changing that,” Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said last Wednesday in reaction.
“I don’t think that should shadow the fact that things are going well,” he added with regard to Sweden’s NATO accession bid.
Tensions between the two countries were heightened last week after protesters in Stockholm hung an effigy of Erdoğan, leading the Turkish Foreign Ministry to summon Sweden’s ambassador to Ankara. Kristersson later said the effigy was an “act of sabotage” aimed at hampering Sweden’s efforts to join NATO.
Finland has not received a new list of people Turkey would like to see extradited, Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto said in a radio interview on Monday according to public broadcaster Yle.
Haavisto said Ankara’s new demands are likely a reaction to the recent demonstration in Stockholm.
According to a “senior Turkish official” quoted by the Guardian last Saturday, Turkey is unlikely to sign off on the two Nordic countries’ accession before the next Turkish general elections, which are scheduled for June but may take place in April or May.
Source: Politico
