Türkiye's FM slams Sweden over rejection of journalist's extradition

Sweden's refusing to extradite a journalist facing "terror" charges to Türkiye was a "very negative development," Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu has said.

Türkiye expects "not kind words but concrete steps" from Finland and Sweden in order to approve their NATO membership bids, Çavuşoğlu said at a joint press conference with his counterpart from Gambia, Mamadou Tangara.

Sweden's top court yesterday (December 19) rejected Türkiye's request for the extradition of Bülent Keneş, former editor-in-chief of the now-shuttered Today's Zaman newspaper. The newspaper was associated with the movement led by Fetullah Gülen, a US-based cleric, which is designated as a "terror" group in Türkiye and held responsible for the 2016 coup attempt.

During a joint press conference with Sweden's PM in Ankara last month, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan singled out Keneş among the people Türkiye wants Sweden to extradite in order to approve its NATO membership bid.

Keneş was arrested on October 10, 2015, for "insulting the president" because of his tweets. He was released four days later after an appeal by his attorneys. He resigned as the editor-in-chief of Today's Zaman on December 4, 2015.

On October 18, 2016, a court issued an arrest warrant against him for "attempting to overthrow the government of the Republic of Türkiye or preventing it from performing its duty" because of his alleged involvement in the July 2016 coup attempt.

Sweden and Finland's NATO membership bids

Finland and Sweden formally applied to join NATO on May 18, in a decision spurred by Russia's war on Ukraine.

However, Türkiye, a NATO member for over 70 years, voiced objections to the membership bids, criticizing the two countries for tolerating and even supporting "terrorist groups."

The three countries signed a trilateral memorandum of understanding on June 28 at the NATO summit in Madrid, which stipulates that Finland and Sweden will not provide support to the Democratic Union Party (PYD) and the People's Defense Units (YPG), which Türkiye sees as the PKK's extensions in Syria.

The Nordic countries also agreed to address Ankara's pending deportation or extradition requests regarding "terror" suspects.
Türkiye's parliament must ratify the country's approval for Finland and Sweden's membership for them to join NATO.

In September, Sweden lifted restrictions on arms sales to Türkiye, which was among Ankara's demands in order to approve its NATO bid. (VK)