Türkiye demands extradition of terrorists from Finland

ANKARA

The Turkish government has repeated its demand for the extradition of terror convicts from Finland in a lengthy technical meeting in Ankara on Oct. 25.

The officials from the justice ministries of Türkiye and Finland met in the Turkish capital and discussed the judicial cooperation between the two countries in the context of the latter’s application to NATO.

The Turkish team led by Kasım Çiçek, the general director of the Foreign Relations and European Union department of the Justice Ministry introduced evidence over the extradition cases to the Finnish delegation, the daily Hürriyet reported. These cases included those terrorists from the PKK and FETÖ who are believed to reside in Finland.

Ankara has called Helsinki to implement the provisions of the trilateral memorandum of understanding between Türkiye, Sweden and Finland that stipulates the cooperation of the two NATO-aspirant Nordic states with the Turkish government on the fight against terror and extradition of terrorists. The Hürriyet said Türkiye has recently demanded the extradition of nine terrorists from Sweden and six from Finland.

Sweden and Finland had decided to enter NATO after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Given the fact that PKK terrorists have long been benefiting from these two countries’ tolerance which allowed to stay and continue their activities in these countries, Ankara pressed on Sweden and Finland to change its approach towards the terrorists if they are serious in joining the alliance. Following negotiations, the three countries signed a memorandum of understanding in late June.

However, Ankara is still not convinced about the level of cooperation the two Scandinavian countries are pledging. It calls on the extradition of terrorists as a sign of a concrete move. This demand has been reiterated in a trilateral meeting in late August and at a bilateral meeting with the Swedish delegation.