Erdogan warns of Sweden, Finland NATO bids can still be blocked
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday that Sweden and Finland can still get their NATO missions blocked by Turkey if the Nordic nations do not follow a memorandum signed earlier this week.
Turkey raised its objection to Sweden and Finland joining NATO after the three countries signed a 10-point agreement on Tuesday. According to the agreement, the Nordic nations agreed to respond to Turkey’s extradition requests, lift export controls on Turkey and not support Kurdish militant groupsincluding PKK.
Erdogan said that if the agreement is not followed, the Turkish parliament could block their membership. “This activity will not work if we do not approve it in our Parliament,” Erdogan said on the last day of the NATO summit in Madrid.
“First, Sweden and Finland must fulfill their obligations and they are already in the text … But if they do not meet these, then of course there is no way we would send it to our Parliamentt, “he warned.
What seems to be the most crucial issue for Erdogan is that Finland and Sweden agree to extradite suspected PKK members. He claimed that Sweden agreed to extradite 73 people, although a leaked version of the memorandum did not say so.
“Sweden promised to give us these 73 people with this text. They may or may not, we will follow it through the text and we will make our decision, “said the Turkish leader.
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With regard to extradition, the memorandum stated that Sweden and Finland had agreed to deal with Turkey’s “pending deportation or extradition requests urgently and thoroughly”. The Nordic countries also agreed to “establish the necessary bilateral legal framework to facilitate extradition and security co-operation with Turkey.”
The Swedish government may come under intense domestic pressure over the deal with Turkey. The ruling Social Democrats recently survived a no-confidence vote which relied on the support of an independent Kurdish parliamentarian, Amineh Kakabaveh, who said the government agreed not to give in to Turkey’s demands for NATO membership.
By Zerohedge.com
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