Sweden, Finland must send up to 130 “terrorists” to Turkey for NATO bid
ANKARA, Jan 16 (Reuters) – Sweden and Finland must deport or extradite up to 130 “terrorists” to Turkey before the Turkish parliament will approve their bid to join NATO, President Tayyip Erdogan said.
The two Nordic states applied last year to join NATO after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine but all 30 member states must approve their bid.
Turkey has said that Sweden in particular must first take a clearer stance against what it sees as terrorists, mainly Kurdish militants and a group it accuses of an attempted coup in 2016.
“We said look, so if you don’t hand over your terrorists to us, we can’t send it (approval of the NATO application) through parliament anyway,” Erdogan said in comments late Sunday, referring to a joint press conference he held with Sweden’s Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson in November last year.
“For this to pass parliament, first of all, you have to hand over 100, about 130 of these terrorists to us,” Erdogan said.
Sweden and Finland signed a three-way agreement with Turkey in June 2022 that aims to overcome Turkey’s objections.
As part of the agreement, the two Nordic countries pledged to deal with Turkey’s “pending deportation or extradition requests of terror suspects promptly and thoroughly”, taking into account Turkish intelligence and compliance with all European law.
Erdogan’s spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said on Saturday that time was running out for Turkey’s parliament to ratify the bids ahead of presidential and parliamentary elections expected in May.
On Monday, Sweden’s Kristersson said his country was in a “good position” to secure Turkey’s ratification of its NATO bid.
Reporting by Ece Toksabay; Editing by Jonathan Spicer and Gareth Jones
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