Sweden appeases Turkey to become a NATO member, agrees to extradite Turkish national

On April 6, Sweden made the decision to extradite a Turkish citizen who is wanted by the Turkish government, in a move seen by some as an attempt to gain Ankara's approval for Sweden's potential accession to the US-led military alliance NATO. This development occurred just one day after Finland officially became the 31st member of NATO, as per a report from the Cradle. 

In the aftermath of Russia's military intervention in Ukraine, both Sweden and Finland sought to join the NATO alliance out of concern that the conflict could potentially spread into Europe. While Sweden has agreed to extradite a Turkish national allegedly associated with a Kurdish group that Turkey links to a failed coup in 2016, the country has refused Ankara's request for the extradition of additional suspects. 

Is Sweden changing its tune for selfish reasons?

For years, Turkey has accused Sweden of being a “safe haven” for Kurdish militants, citing their history of granting entry to members of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which is designated a terrorist organization by the US, the UK, and Turkey. Ankara has blamed the PKK for the November 2022 Istanbul bombing. The individual that Sweden has agreed to extradite to Turkey, Omer Altun, was sentenced to 15 years by Turkiye’s judiciary last year. Curiously enough, Sweden deemed his convictions to be “equivalent to fraud.”

Now, Sweden’s justice ministry is claiming that the extradition of Omer Altun was agreed upon on the condition that he would be granted a fair retrial. The Swedish Supreme Court approved the extradition on March 30th, and the justice ministry claims that the decision was made in accordance with legal procedure. In a statement, the Supreme Court said that it agreed with the government’s assessment and found no impediment to Altun’s extradition to Turkey.

Quran burning incident made Sweden's road to NATO membership more uphill

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had previously set stringent conditions for supporting the joint applications of Stockholm and Helsinki to join NATO, insisting that Sweden extradite dozens of individuals, mainly Kurds, whom Ankara accuses of either "terrorism" or involvement in a failed coup in 2016. However, Sweden's bid to join NATO was further complicated by the display of an effigy of Erdogan by a group of Swedish nationals in a public area and the burning of a Quran outside Ankara's embassy in Stockholm by a far-right politician.