Ankara’s Growing Appetite – "give me a finger, bite off my hand"

Turkey’s appetite is growing: Ankara has increased its demands and insists that Sweden extradite 42 people already.

As writes BB.LVTurkish authorities have expanded the list of people who are requested to be extradited from Sweden – previously there were 33 people, and now there are 42. Radio Sweden reported on Thursday:

“According to available information, Turkey is demanding the extradition of more people from Sweden than previously known. A clear majority of them are accused of belonging to organizations that are considered terrorist in Turkey.”

Presumably, according to the radio station, 16 people are associated with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) banned in Turkey, 12 people with the Gülen movement, which is considered terrorist in Ankara, seven people with leftist groups. Another seven are charged with various criminal offenses, such as smuggling.

As is known, one of the main conditions for Ankara’s ratification of Sweden’s accession to NATO is the extradition of persons accused by Turkey of terrorism. At the same time, on Monday, the Swedish Supreme Court banned the extradition of Bulent Kenesh, a journalist whom Ankara accuses of attempting a coup in 2016.

Sweden and Finland signed a memorandum of understanding in June. At that time a member of NATO Turkey agreed remove the veto from their applications to join the transatlantic security alliance. Both countries asked to join in response to Russia’s war in Ukraine. However, Turkey demanded additional guarantees for Kurdish fighters.

The first “no” was said in May by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, when he stated: “We are currently following the developments regarding Sweden and Finland, but we are not positive. They have made mistakes in NATO in the case of Greece in the past “, its previous administrations, you know Greece’s attitude towards Turkey. We don’t want to make a mistake. The Scandinavian countries are like hostels for terrorist organizations.”

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