NATO Quid Pro Quo? Sweden must extradite refugee to Turkey
The Swedish government announced on Thursday that it intended to be disclosed Okan Kale, a Turkish citizen living in Sweden, to Turkey after the Turkish government convicted him of credit card fraud – a development possibly related to Turkey’s approval of Sweden’s future NATO membership.
Ankara lifted its veto on Sweden’s inclusion in the transatlantic military alliance following an agreement between Turkey, Sweden and Finland, in which the two Scandinavian nations agreed to take further measures against Swedish and Finnish foreign residents who supported anti-Turkish groups such as Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). Ahead of the deal’s negotiation, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan claimed the two countries had served as havens for Kurdish anti-government militants.
It was not immediately clear how and when Kale entered Sweden, as he had applied for asylum in 2011 but was rejected. AFP reported, however, that Kale had later been granted refugee status in Italy, a member of the Schengen area, which theoretically allowed him to travel to Sweden. It was not immediately clear if Kale was affiliated with any Kurdish rebel movements, although he is known to have Kurdish ancestry.
As part of the deal, Turkey provided Sweden and Finland with a list of seventy-three people it claimed lived within the two countries and should be extradited. Since June, Ankara has expressed frustrations over the slow pace of extraditions, warning that it had not yet formally approved Swedish and Finnish entry into the alliance and could resume its veto at any time.
However, Morgan Johansson, Sweden’s Minister of Justice, played down the significance of Kale’s extradition, describes it to Reuters as a “normal routine issue” that is not connected to wider Swedish-Turkish relations or political developments. He also noted that the extradition request had been received in 2021, well in advance of negotiations between Sweden and Turkey in June 2022. The Swedish government has not indicated whether Kale is one of the people on Ankara’s list.
“The person in question is a Turkish citizen [who was] convicted of fraud offenses in Turkey in 2013 and 2016,” he said. “The [Swedish] The Supreme Court has examined the issue as usual and concluded that there are no obstacles to extradition.”
Sweden’s public broadcaster SVT reported this week that the man had been sentenced in the absence to fourteen years in prison on charges of bank card fraud. The man, who has been in Swedish custody since 2021, is said to have claimed that he was persecuted after converting from Islam to Christianity and refusing to enter Turkey’s mandatory military service program.
Trevor Filseth is a current affairs and foreign policy writer for National interest.
Image: Reuters.