Bozdag said the countries had previously failed to respond to any of Turkey’s extradition requests for “terrorist suspects,” even though they were in line with both international and bilateral agreements.
“A monitoring committee was established within the framework of the agreement signed between Turkey, Sweden and Finland at the last NATO summit,” he said.
Their process to join NATO was initially blocked by Turkey, which accused the Nordic countries of “supporting” anti-Turkish terrorist groups when they rejected Turkish extradition requests for suspects linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the Gรผlen movement.
Listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the EU, the PKK has been insurgent against the Turkish government for more than three decades.
The Gรผlen movement is led by and named after Fethullah Gรผlen, an American Muslim preacher who is considered a spiritual leader by his followers. The Turkish government blamed the movement for masterminding a failed coup in 2016 that killed at least 250 people.
On June 28, Turkey, Sweden and Finland agreed on a memorandum of understanding before Ankara lifted its veto ahead of the NATO summit in Madrid.
In the memorandum, Finland and Sweden pledged to support Turkey’s fight against terrorism and agreed to deal with Turkey’s “deportation or extradition requests of terrorist suspects quickly and thoroughly”.
Source: ANI / Xinhua
Source: The Nordic Page