Turkey demands PKK extraditions from Sweden and Finland as price of Nato deal

Request for the Nordic countries to send 33 suspects for trial is part of the agreement struck late on Tuesday to remove Ankara's objection to them joining Nato

Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson and Finnish President Sauli Niinisto at a trilateral meeting in Madrid. ReutersShow less

Turkey has immediately demanded that Sweden and Norway extradite 33 suspected Kurdish terrorists as part of the agreement that cleared the Nordic countries' Nato applications.

Under the deal to lift his veto on the two countries joining the military alliance, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has swiftly put the 10-point agreement struck late on Tuesday to the test, calling for them to fulfil their part of the deal by sending the alleged militants to Turkey.

Ankara is seeking the extradition of 12 from Finland and 21 from Sweden.

“We will seek the extradition of terrorists from the relevant countries within the framework of the new agreement,” Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said in a statement. “We ask them to fulfil their promises.”

The suspects have not been named but some are from Fethullah Gulen’s sect that Mr Erdogan blames for the 2016 attempted coup in Turkey, as well as from the PKK.

Jens Stoltenberg, Nato’s secretary general, has supported Turkey’s demands to clamp down on terrorism during the summit in Madrid.

A member of the PKK carries an automatic rifle on a road in the Qandil Mountains, in northern Iraq. AFP

“Turkey has expressed some serious concerns on issues like terrorism, and we all know that no Nato ally has suffered more terrorist attacks than Turkey,” he said. “Thousands of people have been killed by the PKK and other groups.” He added that any extraditions would take place in accordance with the European Convention on Extradition and in respect of the rule of law in Finland and Sweden, but that it would be for those countries to explain how this will work.

The EU and US have both proscribed the PKK as a terrorist organisation following its decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state.

Tuesday’s agreement at the Nato summit also stipulated that Sweden and Finland would “not provide support” to the YPG, a PKK offshoot in Syria that played an instrumental role in the US-led alliance against ISIS.

Mr Erdogan had accused Finland and particularly Sweden of providing a haven for Kurdish fighters and financing terror.

The agreement appears to have addressed many of his concerns, with Finland and Sweden pledging to “address Turkey's pending deportation or extradition requests of terror suspects expeditiously and thoroughly”.

“Finland and Sweden confirm that the PKK is a proscribed terrorist organisation,” the agreement stated. “Finland and Sweden commit to prevent activities of the PKK and all other terrorist organisations and their extensions, as well as activities by individuals … linked to these terrorist organisations.”

Mr Erdogan also wanted the two countries to lift embargoes on weapons deliveries they imposed in response to Turkey's 2019 military incursion into Syria.

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  US President Joe Biden speaks at a news conference on the final day of the Nato summit in Madrid. AP

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  British Prime Minister Boris Johnson holds a news conference. PA

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  Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan meets German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. AFP

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  French President Emmanuel Macron speaks during the final day of the Nato summit. AP

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  Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and US President Joe Biden shake hands as Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson look on at a Nato summit in Madrid. Reuters

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  Heads of state of Nato member countries and their spouses pose for a group photo during a visit to the Prado Museum, in Madrid. AFP

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  French president Emmanuel Macron, right, and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis during the Prado Museum visit. AP

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  Mr Biden takes a selfie with Maltese Prime Minister Robert Abela and his wife Lydia Abela as they visit the Prado Museum. AP

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  British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the first lady of France, Brigitte Macron, right, and Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo's wife Annik Penders have a conversation at the museum. AP

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  Spanish police stand in front of protesters during an anti-Nato demonstration near Tirso de Molina square in Madrid. AFP

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  Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appears on a giant screen as he delivers a statement at the start of the first plenary session of the Nato summit. AFP

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  World leaders pose for a photo during the summit. Reuters

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  US President Joe Biden, left, and Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. AP

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  Maria Begona Gomez, wife of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, the first Lady of Lithuania, Diana Nausediene, first lady of Malta, Lydia Abela, and Gauthier Destenay, the husband of Luxembourg's Prime Minister, before a visit to the royal site of San Idelfonso in Segovia. EPA

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  Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, Jens Stoltenberg, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Finland's President Sauli Niinisto, Sweden's Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson and Sweden's Foreign Minister Ann Linde pose for a picture after signing an agreement in Madrid. AP

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  King Felipe VI of Spain addresses leaders during a dinner at the Royal Palace in Madrid. Reuters

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  Mr Johnson meets Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. PA

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  Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen attend a reception at the Royal Palace in Madrid. AP

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  Spain's King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia greet German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, right, during a royal reception for heads of governments and states. EPA

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  King Felipe VI, left, Mr Sanchez, second left and Mr Macron before the dinner. AP

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  Nato leaders pose for a 'family photo' with King Felipe and Queen Letizia in Madrid. Reuters

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  Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, left, with Mr Biden and Mr Macron. EPA

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  Mr Biden, left, and King Felipe arrive for a meeting at the Royal Palace in Madrid. Reuters

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  Mr Johnson talks to journalists on his plane during a flight from Germany – where he was attending the G7 summit – to the Nato summit in the Spanish capital. PA

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  Mr Erdogan, second left, meets Mr Stoltenberg, Mr Niinisto of Finland and Ms Andersson of Sweden before the summit. Reuters

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  Mr Biden shakes hands with Prime Minister Sanchez of Spain at the Palace of Moncloa, in Madrid. AFP

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  Mr Erdogan, centre, arrives at the Torreon air base in Madrid. AP

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  Mr Sanchez, right, speaks with Mr Stoltenberg before the summit. EPA

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  US first lady Jill Biden, centre left, and Spain's Queen Letizia speak with a family during a visit to a reception centre for Ukrainian refugees in Madrid. AP

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  Spanish police patrol outside the Ifema convention centre before the Nato summit in Madrid. EPA

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  Mr Sanchez and his New Zealand counterpart Jacinda Ardern hold the jerseys of their national football teams during a meeting at Moncloa Palace. EPA

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  Finland's President Niinisto speaks during a briefing in Madrid before the Nato summit. Reuters

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  Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese speaks to the media after arriving at Torrejon Airbase in Madrid. EPA

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  Spanish police officers control traffic on the Spain-France border in Irun. Reuters

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  Mr Stoltenberg speaks at a press conference to preview the Nato summit at the alliance's headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. AFP

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  Spanish police use sniffer dogs to check a podium at the Ifema centre in Madrid. EPA

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  US first lady Jill Biden waves on arrival at Torrejon air base in Madrid. Reuters

With the summit potentially being overshadowed by the Turkish objection to increasing the alliance to 32 members, deft diplomacy was required by Mr Stoltenberg to find an agreement.

After meeting the leaders of all three countries, he managed to get a deal over the line with the Nordic states apparently conceding.

“Turkey got what it wanted,” Mr Erdogan’s office declared in a statement. He is also expected to secure a long-sought meeting with US President Joe Biden on Wednesday evening.

After several years of frosty relations between the two Nato members, US officials told reporters that Mr Biden was “keen” to improve dealings with Turkey. That could lead to a deal in which Ankara secures 40 new F-16 fighters for its air force.