Sweden, Turkey Clash Over NATO Steps --- Ankara's extradition demands pose hurdle to deal for Nordic nation to join alliance

"ISTANBUL -- Sweden's prime minister said Sunday that his country can't meet some of the demands made by Turkey in order for the Nordic nation to enter the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

"Turkey both confirms that we did what we said we would do, but they also say they want things we can't and don't want to give them,"said Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, speaking at a security conference in Salen, Sweden.

He also said it was "impossible to know" whether Turkey would ratify Sweden's application before Turkey's coming election, which was initially scheduled for June but is likely to be held earlier.

The comments point to an impasse between Sweden, Finland and Turkey, which has threatened to block the two countries' application to join the alliance over objections to their ties to Kurdish separatist groups. Both countries ended decades of neutrality by deciding to join NATO last year in reaction to Russia's military operation in Ukraine.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan initially threatened to veto the Nordic nations' membership last May, citing what he argued was their support for the Kurdistan Workers' Party, known as the PKK. The group is designated a terrorist organization by Turkey, the European Union and the U.S., but the group's Syrian branch is a U.S. and western military partner in the continuing campaign against Islamic State extremists. Sweden has disputed Mr. Erdogan's allegations as misinformation.

Turkey, Sweden and Finland signed an agreement in June that was designed to resolve the dispute by setting up a security dialogue among the three nations. Sweden and Finland also agreed to address extradition requests made by Turkey of alleged terrorism suspects.

Following the signing of the agreement, Mr. Erdogan and other Turkish officials have insisted that Sweden hasn't done enough to meet its demands, creating an impasse that has persisted for months.

All but two members of NATO have ratified Sweden and Finland's accession to the alliance, with only Turkey and Hungary remaining. Hungary has said its parliament would vote on the expansion of the organization early this year.

Turkey's extradition requests are at the heart of the dispute. In the agreement they signed in June, Finland and Sweden only agreed to address Turkey's requests for extradition within the framework of their own laws and a European treaty on extraditions.

Sweden in September lifted restrictions on arms sales to Turkey that had been in place since a 2019 Turkish military incursion in Syria that targeted Kurdish militants.

Turkey's state news service in May published a list of the people Ankara wants to be extradited from Sweden. The list includes suspected PKK members, an exiled Turkish journalist and one person whose family says he died in 2015.

In December, Sweden's supreme court blocked the extradition of Bulent Kenes, an exiled Turkish newspaper editor. The Turkish government has accused Mr. Kenes of being a member of the Gulen movement, which Turkey blames for a failed 2016 military coup attempt. The court said Mr. Kenes was at risk of persecution for his political beliefs.

Mr. Erdogan faces a difficult re-election battle in Turkey's coming national election, where there is widespread dissatisfaction with the state of the country's economy, which suffers from 64% inflation after peaking at over 85% last year.

Much of the Turkish public has been supportive of his hard-line stance against Sweden and Finland.

Mr. Kristersson, who leads a conservative government elected in September that has been generally enthusiastic about boosting security ties with Turkey, said on Sunday that Sweden can't override its own laws and judicial institutions.

"From time to time, Turkey mentions individuals that they want to see extradited from Sweden. My reply is that those issues are handled according to Swedish law. Swedish citizens will never be extradited to another country at all," he said.

"There are a lot of factors at play here, domestic political factors as well as Sweden's ability to prove that we're serious about what we've said," he also said.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, speaking at the same security conference on Sunday, reiterated his view that Sweden and Finland had fulfilled their responsibilities under the June agreement with Turkey.

"I am happy that the agreement has been followed through," he said.” [1]

1.  World News: Sweden, Turkey Clash Over NATO Steps --- Ankara's extradition demands pose hurdle to deal for Nordic nation to join alliance
Malsin, Jared.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]. 09 Jan 2023: A.8.