President Tayyip Erdogan stated that Sweden and Finland must deport or extradite up to 130 ‘terrorists’ to Turkey before the Turkish parliament will approve their NATO membership bids.
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the two Nordic countries applied to join NATO last year, but their bids must be approved by all 30 NATO member states. The applications have yet to be approved by Turkey and Hungary.
Turkey has stated that Sweden, in particular, must first take a firmer stance against what it considers terrorists, primarily Kurdish militants, whom it blames for a 2016 coup attempt.
‘We said, look, if you don’t hand over your terrorists to us, we can’t pass it (NATO application approval) through the parliament anyway,’ Erdogan said late Sunday, referring to a joint press conference he held with Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson last November.
‘First and foremost, you have to hand over more than 100, around 130 of these terrorists to us for this to pass the parliament,’ Erdogan said.
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