Sweden must live up to the terms of the NATO agreement with Turkey: PM
VISBY
Sweden will live up to the terms of a memorandum of understanding agreed with Ankara to overcome Turkey’s objections to Swedish membership in NATO, Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson said on August 16.
Andersson held a press conference at Almedal Week, also known as “Politicians’ Week in Almedalen”, an annual event at Park Almedalen in the city of Visby.
Recalling Okan Kale, the first man to be extradited to Türkiye, Anderssen said the decision to extradite a man to Türkiye wanted for fraud was made last week “according to Swedish and international law.”
“We will continue to work that way,” she added.
Sweden’s government said on August 11 that it would hand over a Turkish citizen to Ankara, the first known extradition since Turkey threatened to freeze Stockholm’s application to join NATO.
The man facing extradition was identified in Swedish legal documents as Okan Kale and was convicted in Türkiye of credit card fraud in 2013 and 2016.
He applied for asylum in Sweden in 2011 but his request was rejected. He was granted refugee status in Italy in 2014. Kale’s name is on a list published in Turkish media of people Ankara wants extradited from Sweden.
Kale has been in Swedish custody since December 2021.
The trilateral agreement, which was signed at the end of June in Madrid on the sidelines of the NATO summit, means that Sweden and Finland cooperate with Turkey against all possible terrorist organizations, including the PKK, YPG and FETÖ, if they want to be members of the alliance.
The agreement tells Sweden and Finland to take all measures to stop terrorists’ activities on their soil for propaganda and fundraising etc. It also obliges the two Scandinavian countries to extradite terrorists to Turkey.