Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan demands that Sweden and Finland must extradite up to 130 “terrorists” before the Turkish parliament will approve their NATO bid.
“For this to pass the parliament, first of all you have to hand more than 100, around 130 of these terrorists to us.”
– Recep Tayyip Erdogan, President of Turkey
Turkey said Sweden in particular must take a clearer stance against members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, which it blames for a 2016 coup attempt.
Finnish politicians saw Erdogan’s demand as an angry response to last week’s strung up of an effigy of the Turkish leader by a small protest in Stockholm.
Last year, the two Nordic states applied to join NATO following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. So far Turkey and Hungary have not approved their applications.
