Monitoring Desk
ANKARA: Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday that Finland and Sweden must extradite or deport up to 130 “terrorists” to Turkiye before the Turkish parliament approves their bids to join NATO.
Last year, the two Nordic states applied to join NATO following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine; however, all 30 member states are required to approve their bids before allowing these countries to join the alliance.
Turkiye has said Sweden, in particular, must first take a much clear stance against what it considers terrorists, mainly Kurdish militants and a group Ankara blames for a 2016 coup attempt.
“We said look, so if you do not hand over your terrorists to us, we can not pass it (approval of the NATO application) through the parliament anyway,” Turkish President Erdogan said in comments, referring to a joint press conference he held with Swedish Prime Minister (PM) Ulf Kristersson last November.
Sweden, Finland bid to join NATO
“For this purpose to pass the parliament, first of all, you have to hand over 100, around 130 of these terrorists to us,” the Turkish President said.
Finland and Sweden signed a three-way deal with Turkiye in June 2022 to overcome Turkiye’s objections.
As part of that accord, Sweden and Finland pledged to address Turkiye’s “pending deportation or extradition requests of terror suspects thoroughly and expeditiously,” considering Turkish intelligence and respecting all European law.
On Saturday, Erdogan’s spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said that time was running out for Turkiye’s parliament to ratify the bids before the presidential and parliamentary elections expected in May this year.
On Monday, the Swedish Prime Minister said that his country was in a perfect position to secure Turkiye’s ratification of its NATO bid.
