Turkey is pressuring NATO aspirants Sweden and Finland for the extradition of Kurdish militants
Sweden and Finland have not yet extradited suspected Kurdish militants to Turkey as part of a deal that would grant the Nordic nations NATO membership, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Wednesday.
Further details on his comment were not immediately available.
Turkey has accused Sweden and Finland of providing a haven for Kurdish militants, but the country has agreed to waive its veto on the countries’ NATO applications in exchange for the militants’ extradition on terrorism-related charges.
While Turkey has not set a firm deadline, it has said it expects the 73 people to be extradited as soon as possible and is monitoring the situation closely.
Turkey has said it will block the Scandinavian countries’ bid for NATO membership if the promises are not kept.
“Sweden has an ongoing dialogue with Turkey and Finland about the trilateral agreement which Sweden follows and will implement fully in accordance with Swedish and international law,” says a spokesman from Sweden’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Turkey’s foreign ministry summoned the Swedish embassy’s chargé d’affaires in Ankara to convey its “strong reaction” to what it called “terrorist propaganda” displayed during a Kurdish group’s protest in Stockholm, diplomatic sources said at the weekend.
Officials from Turkey, Finland and Sweden will meet in August to assess progress in meeting Ankara’s demands.
While Turkey awaits its ratification of the two countries’ bids for membership, 18 of NATO’s 30 members have already approved Sweden’s application to join the alliance.
Sweden and Finland applied to join NATO after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Turkey vetoed Finland and Sweden joining the alliance late on June 28, putting them on a fast track to membership.
Its main concern had been Finland’s and Sweden’s tolerance of the PKK, a Kurdish nationalist organization widely designated as a terrorist group.
Finland’s 1,300 kilometer long border with Russia means that Moscow gets a border with NATO and that the alliance’s border stretches from the Arctic to the Mediterranean.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the adoption of the two countries would chart a plan for the alliance “in a more dangerous and unpredictable world”, transform regional security and strengthen the alliance’s presence in Europe.
Both countries have enormous military power, with the Finnish military capable of deploying up to 240,000 soldiers to war at short notice.
Its fleet in the Baltic Sea is also being strengthened with new frigates and it has signed a deal to buy 64 F-35 stealth fighter jets from the US.
Updated: July 27, 2022, 4:06 p.m