Sweden hands over convicted PKK member to Turkey

The Swedish authorities have extradited to Turkey a member of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which Ankara considers terrorist. Mahmut Tata, convicted for membership in the PKK, was handed over to Turkey on December 2, writes Anadolu.

Mahmut Tat, according to the agency, was sentenced to six years and 10 months in prison in Sweden after being arrested on charges of membership in the PKK. In 2015, due to the verdict, he applied for asylum in Sweden, but was denied.

Finland and Sweden applied to join NATO in May 2022 against the background of Russia’s special operation in Ukraine. Turkey blocked their consideration because the Scandinavian countries allegedly support the PKK.

On June 28, the foreign ministers of the three countries signed a memorandum of understanding confirming Turkey’s support for the countries’ accession to NATO. Turkey, according to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, got everything it wanted in the negotiations: in particular, Finland and Sweden agreed to full cooperation in the fight against the PKK and its offshoots and to lift the embargo on the supply of defense industry products.

At a press conference following the NATO summit in Madrid, Erdogan said that Sweden had committed to extradite Turkey 73 people who, according to the Turkish government, are involved in terrorist activities. In Finland declaredthat they will not extradite their citizens to other countries under any circumstances.

In early November, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg called on Turkey to ratify the agreements on the entry of Sweden and Finland into the alliance, since, according to him, the countries have fulfilled all the requirements put forward by Ankara. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu did not agree with the Secretary General of the alliance. He stated that Ankara does not believe that Sweden and Finland have fulfilled the terms of the agreements for their entry into NATO. At the same time, Bloomberg, citing sources, claimed that Turkey was not going to ratify the agreements before the end of this year. The agency believes that Ankara will delay the decision until the presidential elections to be held in June.

At the end of November Cavusoglu declaredthat the negotiation process on the entry of Sweden and Finland into the alliance is going in a positive way, but the authorities of these countries have not yet taken concrete steps to implement the agreements reached with Turkey. The only countries that have so far not approved Finland’s and Sweden’s accession to NATO are Hungary and Turkey.