A delegation from NATO candidate Sweden met with Turkish officials on Wednesday to discuss Ankara’s requests to extradite others it considers terrorists, the Turkish news firm reported.
Turkey had threatened to block donations from Sweden and Finland to join the 30-member military alliance. He accused the two Nordic countries of ignoring Turkish security considerations and insisted they replace their position over Kurdish rebels and other equipment Turkey considers terrorists. Ankara had also demanded the lifting of the arms embargo on Turkey.
NATO operates through consensus and the Nordic club wants Turkey’s approval to move forward.
Officials from the Swedish and Turkish justice ministries have begun two days of talks to discuss the possible extradition of others connected to banned Kurdish equipment or the network of an exiled cleric whom Ankara accuses of orchestrating a failed coup in 2016, Anadolu Agency reported.
Last week, Sweden announced it would lift the arms embargo it imposed on Ankara in 2019, following the Turkish army’s operation against the Kurdish defense force known as the YPG in Syria. The move was widely noted as a step toward securing Ankara’s approval.
The Turkish parliament has not yet ratified the accession of Sweden and Finland to NATO.
Finland, once neutral, is abandoning what, in Sweden’s case, has been two hundred years of army non-alignment, prompted to sign NATO’s mutual defense pact following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and its ongoing war there.
Meanwhile, Turkey’s Foreign Ministry summoned the Swedish ambassador to protest Swedish state television content allegedly insulting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The ambassador said “excessive and ugly comments and images” opposed to Erdogan and Turkey “were unacceptable,” Anadolu said in a separate report.
It provided the main points about the content.
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