Istanbul
\nJust two days after agreeing to lift deal-breaking objections to Sweden and Finland\u2019s Nato accession, Turkey\u2019s president has warned that Ankara could still block the process if the two countries fail to fully meet his expectations.
\nRecep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan said at the close of the alliance\u2019s summit in Madrid that the 10-article agreement with the Nordic pair was a victory for Ankara and addressed all its \u201csensitivities\u201d.
\nHe particularly stressed the satisfying of Turkey\u2019s demand for Sweden and Finland to extradite terror suspects with links to outlawed Kurdish groups or the network of an exiled cleric accused of a failed 2016 coup in Turkey.
\nBut Erdo\u011fan added that if the two Nordic countries renege on their promises, Turkey\u2019s parliament could refuse to ratify the deal reached on Tuesday. Nato accession must be formally approved by all 30 member states, which gives each a blocking right.
\n\u201cThis business will not work if we don\u2019t pass this in our parliament,\u201d Erdo\u011fan said. \u201cFirst, Sweden and Finland must fulfil their duties and those are already in the text \u2026 But if they don\u2019t fulfil these, then of course there is no way we would send it to our parliament.\u201d
\nErdo\u011fan claimed that Sweden had promised to extradite 73 \u201cterrorists\u201d to Turkey and crack down on the financing and recruitment activities of the Kurdistan Workers\u2019 party (PKK) \u2013\u2013 listed as a terrorist group by the US and the EU \u2013\u2013 and linked groups.
\nTurkey considers the Syrian Kurdish People\u2019s Protection Units (YPG) an extension of the PKK.
\nThe text of the memorandum sets no specific number of extraditions. It says Finland and Sweden will address Turkey\u2019s \u201cpending deportation or extradition requests of terror suspects expeditiously and thoroughly, taking into account information, evidence and intelligence provided\u201d by Turkey in accordance with the European convention on extradition.
\nOn Wednesday, the Turkish justice minister, Bekir Bozda\u011f, said Sweden and Finland\u2019s justice ministries have files from Turkey on 33 people with alleged links to PKK and the network of US-based Turkish cleric Fethullah G\u00fclen.
\nJournalists repeatedly pressed Erdo\u011fan on Thursday about the extraditions and whether Sweden had actually promised the number he cited. He said the number of extradition requests previously stood at 60 but had been updated to 73.
\n\u201cOf course, what we understand is important from our meetings and talks,\u201d Erdogan said. \u201cSweden promised to give us these 73 people with this text. They may or they may not, we will follow that through the text and we will make our decision.\u201d
\nThere was no immediate response to requests for comments from the Swedish delegation at the summit in Madrid.
\nThe Swedish government has sought to allay concerns that the deal would lead to extraditions to Turkey without due process.
\n\u201cI know there are some people who are worried that we\u2019re going to start to hunt people and extradite them, and I think it\u2019s important to say that we always follow Swedish laws and international conventions, and we never extradite Swedish citizens,\u201d the Swedish prime minister, Magdalena Andersson, told public broadcaster SVT on Wednesday.
\nThe Finnish president, Sauli Niinist\u00f6, stressed Helsinki pointed out that the memorandum does not list the names of individuals.
\n\u201cIn the case of extraditions, we will adhere to our own legislation and international agreements. Ultimately, extradition is a legal discretion which politicians have no right to influence,\u201d Niinist\u00f6 said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Istanbul Just two days after agreeing to lift deal-breaking objections to Sweden and Finland\u2019s Nato accession, Turkey\u2019s president has warned that Ankara could still block the process if the two countries fail to fully meet his expectations. Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan said at the close of the alliance\u2019s summit in Madrid that the 10-article agreement with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":187906,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[5934,1116,5933,2442],"class_list":{"0":"post-269276","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-finland","9":"tag-nato","10":"tag-sweden","11":"tag-tayyip-erdogan"},"yoast_head":"\n