Turkey says that Sweden’s first extradition of Turkish convicts does not meet the requirements
Turkey’s justice minister said Thursday that Sweden’s promise to extradite a Turkish convict fell short of Stockholm’s commitments under a deal paving the way for its NATO membership.
NATO member Turkey is threatening to freeze Sweden’s bid to join the Western defense alliance if it does not extradite dozens of people Ankara accuses of “terrorism”.
A non-binding agreement Sweden and fellow Nato aspirant Finland signed with Turkey in June commits them to “quickly and thoroughly” investigate Ankara’s requests for suspects linked to a 2016 coup attempt and outlawed Kurdish militants.
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The Swedish government said earlier this month it would extradite Okan Kale – a man convicted of credit card fraud who appeared on a list of people wanted by Ankara published by Turkish media.
Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag told conservative news site Milliyet that Sweden must do much more to win Turkey’s trust.
“If they think that by extraditing common criminals to Turkey they will make us believe that they have fulfilled their promises, they are wrong,” Bozdag said in the first government response to the extradition decision.
“No one should test Turkey,” he warned.
Bozdag is seen as one of the more hawkish members of Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government.
The Turkish leader himself has warned that he will not submit the two countries’ ratification applications to parliament if they do not fully comply with his extradition demands.
Erdogan said in July that Sweden has given a “promise” to extradite “73 terrorists”.
In June, the Turkish Ministry of Justice formally requested the extradition of 21 suspects from Sweden and 12 from Finland.
Sweden and Finland ended decades of military neutrality and decided to try to join NATO in response to Russia’s February invasion of Ukraine.
Their bid has already been ratified by the US and more than half of the 30 NATO members. Each application must win the unanimous consent of the member states.
Sweden and Finland are to hold their first formal consultations with Turkey on the dispute on August 26.
Swedish media reported that the meeting will be held in Stockholm but no formal announcement has been made.
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