The demands of the Turkish president before the ink of the agreement dries up
The Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened again on Thursday to block Sweden and Finland from joining NATO before 48 hours from the agreement between the three countries.
Addressing the press at the close of the Atlantic Alliance summit in Madrid, he called on the two Nordic countries to “play their part” in the fight against “terrorism”, otherwise they would bury the agreement signed on Tuesday night. .
Since mid-May, Ankara has been blocking NATO’s enlargement process, the two northern European states joining the military alliance, accusing them of protecting Kurdish fighters from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the People’s Protection Units (YPG), which describes as “terrorist”.
However, on Tuesday night, the three governments signed an agreement that theoretically paves the way for Sweden and Finland to join NATO, something they decided to ask for after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, abandoning the neutrality regime they had been pursuing for decades.
Yesterday, the Turkish president spoke for the first time since the signing of the tripartite agreement and referred in particular to his terms.
“If they do their job, we will submit (the agreement) to the Turkish parliament” for approval. “If they do not do it, there is no question for us to submit it to Parliament …”he explained.
A senior Turkish diplomat in Washington said the adoption process could begin as early as September and could last until 2023. The Turkish parliament begins its summer vacation today.
Mr Erdogan referred to the “promise made by Sweden” to extradite “73 terrorists”. “They will send them, they promised. It is mentioned in the documents. “They will keep their promise,” he added, without elaborating.
“Blackmail”
Stockholm reacted last night, recalling that decisions on publishing issues receives justice, which is “independent”.
“In Sweden, the law is enforced by independent courts,” Justice Minister Morgan Johansson said in a written statement to AFP.
“Persons without Swedish citizenship can be extradited at the request of other countries, but only if it complies with Swedish law and the European Extradition Convention,” he insisted.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan did not give details about the 73 people in the target yesterday. For several years now, Ankara has been demanding the extradition of Kurds, members of armed groups or individuals affiliated with Fethullah Gulen’s movement in exile in Sweden.
The Turkish head of state also called on Helsinki and Stockholm to “complete their laws” regarding the presence on their territory of members of the PKK and YPG, organizations operating on Turkey’s borders with Iraq and Syria.
“What matters is that the promises made to Turkey are kept,” he insisted.
In the spotlight at the start of the Madrid summit, when he threatened to veto the two countries’ accession to NATO, the Turkish president returned to it vigorously at its closing.
In the corridors of the summit, a European diplomatic source spoke bluntly about “blackmail” by the Turkish president.
“International law”
The agreement signed on Tuesday stipulates that Turkey is lifting its veto on the two Scandinavian states’ accession to NATO in exchange for cooperating on members of Kurdish organizations in its sights.
The very next day, Ankara demanded that Sweden and Finland extradite 33 “terrorists”.
They are members of either the PKK, an organization described as “terrorist” by Ankara and its Western allies, or the movement of preacher Fethullah Gulen, whom Erdogan accuses of being the mastermind of a military coup attempt in Turkey in July. of 2016.
The demand was coldly received in both Helsinki and Stockholm. “All these cases have already been decided in Finland,” said Finnish President Sauli Niinistστε.
For its part, the Finnish Ministry of Justice clarified that “it has not received any new extradition requests from Turkey in recent days”.
For her part, Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Anderson promised “closer co-operation with Turkey on the lists of PKK (fighters)”. “But we will continue to abide by Swedish law and international law,” Anderson added in an Instagram post.
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