SpaceWar.com - Your World At War
Turkey slams Sweden's refusal to extradite reporter
Istanbul, Dec 20 (AFP) Dec 20, 2022
Turkey on Tuesday slammed Sweden's refusal to extradite a reporter that Ankara has demanded in exchange for its ratification of Stockholm's NATO membership.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wants Sweden to return dozens of people that he suspects of involvement in a failed 2016 coup.

But the now-closed Today's Zaman newspaper's former editor-in-chief Bulent Kenes was the only person Erdogan mentioned specifically by name.

Sweden's Supreme Court cited the risk of Turkey's "persecution based on this person's political beliefs" when it blocked the request on Monday.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu lashed out at the decision in brief comments to reporters.

"The rejection of our request for the extradition of Bulent Kenes is a very negative development," Cavusoglu said.

Cavusoglu stressed that Sweden's extradition earlier this month of one man suspected of membership of a banned Kurdish insurgency group was insufficient to win Turkey's approval.

"If they expect that they can return one person and then close this affair, this is not realistic," Cavusoglu said.

"We no longer want to hear good words from Sweden and Finland, we want to see concrete steps."

Sweden and Finland broke with decades of military non-alignment and decided to apply for NATO membership in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Turkey and Hungary remain the only NATO member states to have failed to ratify the Nordic countries' applications.

Cavusoglu said he would have more discussions about the dispute during a visit to Ankara on Thursday by Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom.


ADVERTISEMENT




Space News from SpaceDaily.com
NASA raises chance for asteroid to hit moon
Tidal forces from the Sun may have shaped Mercury's tectonic features
Thick Martian clays may have formed in stable ancient lakebeds

24/7 Energy News Coverage
Israeli army says struck ' inactive nuclear reactor' in Iran's Arak
New Zealand targets leadership in superconducting space tech with new research alliance
ICEYE radar imaging added to SkyFi satellite data platform

Military Space News, Nuclear Weapons, Missile Defense
Axient joins Space Force STEP 20 initiative to drive next generation orbital tech
Trump 'Golden Dome' plan tricky and expensive: experts
Can NATO keep Trump on-message about Russia threat?

24/7 News Coverage
NASA scientists find ties between Earth's oxygen and magnetic field
How did life survive 'Snowball Earth'? In ponds, study suggests
Arctic warming spurs growth of carbon-soaking peatlands



All rights reserved. Copyright Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.