Sweden extradites Kurdish asylum seekers to Turkey
Sweden has extradited the Kurdish asylum seeker Mahmut Tat to Turkey. Tat had been arrested in Sweden on November 22 and was in custody in Mölndal. On Friday evening, he was flown from Arlanda Airport in Stockholm to Istanbul and spent the night in the custody of the airport police. He is expected to appear before the judge later today.
Mahmut Tat was indicted in 2015 for activities on behalf of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and he was sentenced to six years and ten months in prison. Seven years ago, he applied for political asylum in Sweden. The asylum application was rejected.
Turkey is preventing Finland and Sweden from applying to join NATO because of the accusation that these countries, especially Sweden, are backcountry for the PKK. Sweden and Finland therefore signed an extradition agreement with Turkey in June. At the beginning of November, Sweden announced that it will get closer to Turkey and tighten its anti-terror laws. This will in the future enable the Swedish government to introduce new laws restricting freedom of assembly in the case of associations involved in or supporting “terrorism”. Until now, Sweden has made its anti-terror laws comparatively liberal in order to protect freedom of association. For example, prosecutions for mere membership of a group suspected of having a terrorist background were not allowed. Turkey made its consent to Sweden’s NATO accession conditional on this step. The constitutional amendment enters into force at the turn of the year.
In September, Sweden again approved arms exports to Turkey for the first time. The export licenses had been stopped during the Turkish army’s invasion of northern Syria in October 2019, which was against international law. Sweden then advocated an EU-wide arms embargo against Turkey.
In early November, the Swedish government publicly distanced itself from the autonomous administration of northern and eastern Syria to “satisfy Turkish concerns”. Foreign Minister Tobias Billström said of the Democratic Unity Party (PYD) and the People’s Defense Units (YPG) that their links to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) were “too close to be good for relations between us and Turkey”. His government’s main goal, he said, was Sweden’s NATO membership. Billström thereby signaled his willingness to add a new dimension to the criminalization policy against the Kurdish people that has existed in the Nordic countries for decades.
Sweden and Finland applied for NATO membership in the wake of the Russian attack on Ukraine in May. Apart from Hungary and Turkey, all member states have ratified this application.