Turkey says Sweden must do more to extradite Kurdish man

ANKARA: Sweden's extradition of a Kurdish man last week with alleged terrorism links is a good start, but Stockholm needs to do more before Ankara can approve its NATO membership, Turkish Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said on Monday. Swedish Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said on Friday that Swedish deported Turkish citizen Mahmut Tat, who had been sentenced in Turkey in 2015 to six years and 10 months in jail for alleged links to the outlawed Kurdist Bozdag said in a televised interview with state broadcaster TRT Haber that new extraditions will be in line with this sincerity.

He made clear that Turkey expected further moves from Stockholm before it could ratify Sweden's NATO application.

In line with the trilateral memorandum with Sweden and Finland, they should lift all arms embargoes on Turkey, change their legislation for the fight against terrorism, and extradite all terrorists that Turkey wants to get rid of. Bozdag said that all of these conditions should not be reduced to extraditions.

Sweden and Finland applied to join NATO in May in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, but ran into objections from Turkey, which accused the two countries of harboring militants from the PKK and other groups.

Stockholm and Helsinki deny sheltering militants but have pledged to cooperate with Ankara to fully address its security concerns and lift arms embargoes.

The two Nordic countries that require the approval of all 30 alliance member states are required by NATO to make its decisions by consensus. Turkey is not opposed to their membership.