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Turkish Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag
Photo: Anadolu Agency/ Getty Images
After Turkey surprisingly gave up its resistance to Sweden and Finland joining NATO on Tuesday, it is now making its first demands.
Ankara is demanding the extradition of 33 "terrorist" suspects from the two countries.
The demand is based on the agreement that Ankara signed with the two Nordic countries, Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said on Wednesday, according to the Turkish television channel NTV.
"Under the new agreement, we will ask Finland for the extradition of six PKK and six Fetö members, and Sweden for the extradition of ten Fetö members and eleven PKK members," Bozdag said on Wednesday.
The Turkish government calls the movement of the Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen, whom the head of state Recep Tayyip Erdoğan blames for the 2016 coup attempt, a fetö.
In the course of the Russian attack on Ukraine, Sweden and Finland broke with their decades-long tradition of military alliance neutrality and applied for NATO membership in May.
Allies must unanimously agree to admit new members.
Turkey was the only country to oppose it.
Ankara accused Helsinki and above all Stockholm of providing shelter to fighters of the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
The PKK is classified as a "terrorist organization" by Turkey and its western allies.
On Tuesday, Turkey gave up its opposition to Sweden and Finland joining NATO.
Ankara said the two EU countries had responded to Turkey's key demands.
For example, Finland and Sweden had declared that they would cooperate with Turkey on arms exports and deliveries.
But they want to continue to comply with their national laws.
mfh/AFP
