Turkish, Swedish delegations meet for discussions on extradition of terror suspects

ANKARA

Turkish and Swedish Justice Ministry delegations started two-day talks on the extradition of terror suspects on Oct. 5 under a NATO agreement.

The Turkish delegation is chaired by Kasım Çiçek, the director general of Foreign Relations and the European Union at the Justice Ministry.

Ankara has long been urging the two countries to concretely support Türkiye’s fight against terror if they want to join NATO. Türkiye, Sweden and Finland signed a memorandum of understanding on June 29 on the sidelines of the NATO Summit for the two Nordic states’ joining the alliance

The trilateral agreement stipulates that Sweden and Finland cooperate with Türkiye against all sorts of terrorist organizations, including the PKK, the YPG and FETÖ, if they want to be a member of the alliance.

The agreement stipulates Sweden and Finland will take all the measures to stop the terrorists’ activities on their soils for propaganda and fund-raising etc. It also obliges the two Scandinavian countries to extradite terrorists to Türkiye.

“Finland and Sweden will address Türkiye’s pending deportation or extradition requests of terror suspects expeditiously and thoroughly, taking into account information, evidence and intelligence provided by Türkiye, and establish necessary bilateral legal frameworks to facilitate extradition and security cooperation with Türkiye, in accordance with the European Convention on Extradition,” according to the memorandum.

Türkiye said it can only greenlight their accession should it be assured that they will effectively fight against terror and extradite terror convicts.