OUR Sweden must extradite ‘terrorists’ if he wants to join NATO, says justice minister Turkey after the disappointing, according to Ankara’s description, the first extradition of a Turk convicted of ordinary crimes.

“If they think they can make Turkey believe that they have kept their promises by extraditing criminals under common criminal law, then they are mistaken,” Minister Bekir Bozdag said in an interview published today by the Milliyet newspaper.

Since mid-May, Turkey, a member of NATO, has blocked the process of expanding the Atlantic Alliance to include Sweden and Finland, accusing the two countries of protecting Kurdish fighters of the Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK) and the People’s Self-Defense. Units (YPG), organizations that Ankara characterizes as terrorist.

At the end of June, the foreign ministers of Turkey, Sweden and Finland nevertheless signed a memorandum of agreement, opening up access for the two Scandinavian countries to the Atlantic alliance.

The next day, Turkey turned to the two countries with extradition requests for 33 people, most of whom Ankara considers “terrorists.”

“We have not received any response regarding the extradition of FETO members. [ακρωνύμιο που χρησιμοποιεί η Άγκυρα για την οργάνωση του ιεροκήρυκα Φετουλάχ Γκιουλέν, ο οποίος κατηγορείται από τις τουρκικές αρχές ότι υποκίνησε την απόπειρα πραξικοπήματος του Ιουλίου 2016]PKK and other terrorist organizations,” the Turkish minister said.

“Letters repeating our demands were sent to our Ministry of Foreign Affairs and from there to the countries concerned,” he added.

The name of Okan Kale, the first Turkish citizen whose extradition request was accepted by Sweden, was included in a list of 33 names published in late June by Turkish media. Calais was convicted of fraud.

A meeting between Turkey, Finland and Sweden, dedicated to the process of the two countries’ accession to NATO, is scheduled for August 26. The meeting will take place in Sweden, according to the Swedish media.

About 20 NATO member states – out of 30 in total – have already ratified the request for membership of the two Nordic countries.

^{According to AFP, APE-MPE}