Turkey says it expects more extraditions from Sweden | WKZO | All things Kalamazoo
ANKARA (Reuters) – Sweden’s extradition to Turkey last week of a Kurdish man with alleged terrorism links is a “good start”, but Stockholm must do more before Ankara can approve its NATO membership, Turkish Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said on Monday.
Sweden on Friday expelled Turkish citizen Mahmut Tat, who had sought asylum in Sweden in 2015 after being sentenced in Turkey to six years and ten months in prison for alleged links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
“This is a good start from Sweden which shows their sincerity and goodwill. We hope new (extraditions) will follow in line with this sincerity,” Bozdag said in a televised interview with state broadcaster TRT Haber.
However, he made it clear that Turkey expected further moves from Stockholm before the country could ratify Sweden’s NATO application.
“In line with the trilateral memorandum with Sweden and Finland, they should lift all (arms) embargoes against Turkey, change their anti-terrorism legislation and extradite all terrorists that Turkey wants. All these conditions should not be reduced to extraditions,” Bozdag said .
Sweden and Finland applied in May to join NATO in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but ran into objections from Turkey, which accused the two countries of harboring militants from the PKK and other groups.
Stockholm and Helsinki deny harboring militants but have pledged to work with Ankara to fully address its security problems and also to lift an arms embargo.
NATO makes its decisions by consensus, which means the two Nordic nations require approval from all 30 alliance member states. Only Turkey is still against their membership.
(Reporting by Huseyin Hayatsever; Editing by Ali Kucukgocmen, Gareth Jones and Crispian Balmer)