Status: 03.12.2022 18:12
Turkey blocks Sweden and Finland from joining NATO over alleged support of Kurdish terrorists. According to Turkish media, Sweden has now extradited a PKK member. The man was arrested in Istanbul.
According to Turkish state media, Sweden has extradited a member of the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (Partiya Karkeren Kurdistane, PKK) who had been convicted in Turkey. The man arrived in Istanbul on Friday night and was arrested by the Turkish police shortly thereafter, the Turkish state news agency Anadolu reported. The man was brought before a court today, which ordered his arrest.
According to the news agency, he had been sentenced to more than six years in prison in Turkey for being a member of the PKK. In 2015 he fled to Sweden to avoid his sentence. An application for asylum was reportedly rejected.
Cavusoglu speaks of “positive steps”
Kurdish groups are at the center of a row over Sweden and Finland’s NATO membership. Turkey has accused Sweden in particular of being a haven for “terrorists” and has called for the extradition of several PKK members in an agreement signed with Sweden and Finland in June. Stockholm and Helsinki deny harboring militants but have pledged to work with Ankara.
Sweden and Finland decided to apply for NATO membership as a result of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine. Turkey has blocked the two countries from joining the military alliance since May.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu spoke to his colleagues from Sweden and Finland on the sidelines of a NATO meeting earlier this week. “The statements (from Sweden) are good, the determination is good, but we need to see concrete steps,” Cavusoglu said. He praised the new Swedish government as “more determined than the previous one”. “They have made changes in the law and all of these are positive steps,” said the Turkish foreign minister.
Turkey is also looking for suspected Gülen supporters
In addition to the government in Ankara, most Western countries – including the USA and the EU – classify the PKK as a terrorist organization. In the past, she has repeatedly been blamed for attacks in Turkey. The PKK has been waging guerrilla warfare against the Turkish state since 1984, initially over Kurdish independence. The Turkish security authorities reacted harshly.
Turkey’s government is also looking for people with alleged links to Fethullah Gülen – a Turkish cleric living in the United States accused of being responsible for the failed 2016 coup attempt against Erdogan.