Turkey again asks Sweden, Finland to extradite suspects :: WRAL.com
ANKARA, Turkey “Turkey has sent letters to Sweden and Finland to renew its request for the extradition of people it considers terror suspects,” the Turkish Minister of Justice said on Wednesday.
Last week, Turkey raised its breach of contract with Sweden and Finland’s NATO accession. But Ankara has warned that it could still block the process if the two Nordic countries fail to meet the requirement to extradite people suspected of links to banned Kurdish groups, or to the network of an exile priest accused of a failed 2016 coup.
Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag told TV Haber Global in an interview that letters were sent renewing Turkey’s request for the extradition of suspects for whom previous requests had been denied.
The letters also “reminded” the two countries of suspects whose cases are still ongoing, he said.
Turkey, Sweden and Finland signed a joint memorandum last week that enabled NATO to go further by inviting the Nordic countries to the military alliance that seeks to expand and strengthen in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
With the memorandum, Finland and Sweden agreed to address Turkey’s “pending deportation or extradition requests of terror suspects urgently and thoroughly … in accordance with the European Convention on Extradition.”
Turkey had opposed the membership of Finland and Sweden, accusing them of supporting the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, and other groups they say pose a threat to its security. It demanded that Finland and Sweden extradite wanted individuals and lift arms restrictions imposed following Turkey’s 2019 military invasion of northeastern Syria.
The accession of the Nordic countries must still be approved by the parliaments of all 30 NATO members – a process that could take months – and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has threatened that the Turkish parliament may refuse to do so.