Türkiye, Sweden and Finland will meet on Friday to hold the first trilateral talks meant to pave the way for the two Nordic nations to join NATO and discuss how to cooperate on the deal that was reached on the sidelines of the Madrid summit.
Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde on broadcaster SVT on Wednesday also confirmed the meeting to be held in Finland.
"The issue is how we should follow up on the agreement that Türkiye, Sweden and Finland reached during the NATO summit in Madrid, which was a precondition for Türkiye to agree to Sweden's and Finland's requests," Linde said.
The two incoming Nordic members have pledged to support Türkiye against national security threats, among other commitments. Deportations are also to be made easier.
A deal Sweden and fellow NATO aspirant Finland signed with Türkiye in June commits them to "expeditiously and thoroughly" examine Ankara's requests for suspects linked to the 2016 coup attempt and the PKK terrorists.
The Swedish government said earlier this month that it would extradite Okan Kale – a man convicted of credit card fraud who appeared on a list of people sought by Ankara published by Turkish media.
However, Ankara has voiced that it does not expect fraud suspects but terrorism.
According to Anadolu Agency (AA), Sweden refused to extradite PKK members Mehmet Sıraç Bilgin, Aziz Turan, Ragıp Zarakolu and Halef Tak, granting citizenship to all four. Stockholm did not respond to the requests from Ankara for the extradition of Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) members Harun Tokak and Bülent Kenes, either.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said in July that Sweden had made a "promise" to extradite "73 terrorists."
The Justice Ministry in June formally requested the extradition of 21 suspects from Sweden and 12 from Finland.
A Turkish official told Daily Sabah that one of Türkiye’s main expectations from the talks is the deportation of terrorist suspects ranking first. “But they act as if there is nothing they could give us,” the official said.
He said that Türkiye has no deadline to receive the terrorist suspects, however, Parliament may block the legislation to let the Nordic countries enter NATO in this scenario.
They have no road map or deadline for extraditions, the official said.
Among its many shattering consequences, President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has prompted Sweden and Finland to abandon their long-held nonaligned status and apply to join NATO as protection against an increasingly aggressive and unpredictable Russia – which shares a long border with Finland. Under NATO treaties, an attack on any member would be considered an attack against all and trigger a military response by the entire alliance.
Türkiye agreed in June to lift its opposition to Sweden and Finland joining NATO, ending an impasse that had clouded a leaders’ summit opening in Madrid amid Europe’s worst security crisis in decades, triggered by the war in Ukraine.
In a trilateral deal with Sweden and Finland, Türkiye has demanded that the two countries extradite wanted individuals and lift arms restrictions imposed after Ankara’s 2019 military operation into northeast Syria.
Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto said meetings between representatives of the three countries are to take place alternately in Finland, Sweden and Türkiye in the future.
Swedish State Secretary Oscar Stenström is due to attend the first talks, according to Linde.
On the other side, Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson said on Wednesday on SVT that she does not consider a coalition with the Left Party “which is waving the PKK flag.”
Speaking on whether she considered including the Left Party in a future government ahead of elections on Sept. 11, SVT quoted her as saying: “It is not my first option. I'm skeptical about that; during the summer, they sat and waved PKK flags, it's nothing that builds government efficiency, it makes me doubtful.”
Earlier this month, Linde also called the promotion of the terror group "completely unacceptable."
"The PKK was branded a terrorist organization as early as 1984 by Olof Palme's government. And with good reason. The PKK has many innocent human lives on its conscience," she stated on Twitter, tagging Justice Minister Morgan Johansson.
Linde called on the Left Party to immediately stop supporting the PKK terror group.
During the process of accession to NATO and talks with Türkiye, images on social media showed parliamentarians from the Left Party, which opposed Sweden’s decision to apply for NATO membership, posing with flags of the PKK, the YPG and the women’s wing YPJ.
Sweden’s Left Party is not part of the government but is helping prop up Andersson’s Social Democrat Cabinet.
Amineh Kakabaveh, an independent Swedish lawmaker and former terrorist fighter on whom the Social Democrat government has repeatedly relied for its survival in close parliament votes, had described the day of the signing of the trilateral deal with Türkiye as a "black day for Swedish foreign policy."
