Politics

Sweden’s top court blocks extradition of journalist sought by Turkey


In a move that may impede Turkey’s ratification of NATO’s Nordic enlargement, on Monday Sweden’s Supreme Court blocked the extradition of a journalist whose return was requested by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. 

Bulent Kenes, the former editor-in-chief of Today’s Zaman, was explicitly mentioned by Erdogan when he met with Sweden’s newish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson in Ankara last month. “The extradition of this person is very important for us,” Erdogan told Kristersson. 

Ankara’s demands for the extradition of dozens of people over their alleged ties with what it considers terror groups remain one of the thorniest issues in the talks between Turkey and the two Nordic countries that have shed their neutrality to join NATO. Turkey’s broad definition of terrorism, also a recurrent problem in Turkey’s talks with the European Union, differs widely from theirs. 

The difference was once again evident in the top Swedish court’s ruling on Kenes. The court maintained that some of the accusations against the journalist are not crimes in Sweden. It also opined that the political nature of the case, Kenes’ refugee status and the risk of persecution based on his political beliefs made it impossible for the government to extradite Kenes to Turkey under Sweden’s legal system. 

Turkey accuses Kenes of being involved in the unsuccessful 2016 putsch that Ankara says was organized by what it calls the Fetullah Gulen Terror Organization (FETO), by US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen. Today’s Zaman, the English-language sister publication of mass-circulation Zaman, was considered Gulen’s mouthpiece. As Erdogan’s government and Gulenists locked horns in mid-2015, Zaman, which ran articles on government corruption, was first placed under a state administrator and then shut down with an executive decree by Erdogan a few days after the coup. Arrest warrants were issued for 47 former staff members. Kenes sought asylum in Stockholm, where he founded a think tank with other exiles. 

Kenes said he was happy with the decision but expressed concern that Ankara would find a way to make his life more difficult. In a defiant column for Euobserver last month, Kenes called on European countries to stand against what he called Erdogan’s blackmail. “The West can outplay Erdogan, if leaders stand firm and act in solidarity,” he wrote.

The pro-government media in Turkey immediately attacked the Swedish court’s decision. “Scandalous decision from Sweden — Is that how they plan to join NATO?” tweeted Sabah, while the TGRT news chain ran the headline, “Sweden, which promised to fight against terrorism, refuses to return Gulenist.” 

Turkish media outlets also aired images of an unauthorized demonstration Friday by sympathizers of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) which is on the terrorist list of the EU and the United States, and the PKK’s Syrian arm, the People’s Defense Units (YPG). Chanting anti-Turkish slogans, the demonstrators signaled that they were preparing for a large-scale demonstration on Jan. 21 at the country’s capital. 

There was no official response by Ankara at the time of the article, but the two moves may cause Ankara to drag its feet even more in ratifying the membership of Sweden and Finland to NATO and strengthen Turkish diplomats’ arguments that the two countries promise a lot and deliver little.

Despite pronounced optimism from Washington and NATO headquarters in Brussels, Turkey and Hungary have not yet ratified the accord, though Budapest said earlier this year that it would do so in early 2023.

Ankara still maintains that the two countries must “do more” to implement a trilateral memorandum signed in June during the alliance’s Madrid summit. But six months after the eleventh-hour deal, Turkey argues that both Nordic capitals should fulfill their promises to address Ankara’s security concerns and to lift their de facto arms embargo against Ankara.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, who came together with his Nordic counterparts during the NATO summit in Bucharest last month, said the talks were “progressing positively,” but the countries “haven’t taken some concrete steps yet” regarding extraditions and legal regulations. 

Turkey expects Sweden to tighten its grip on the PKK, YPG and FETO both with strengthened laws and on the ground.  Ankara also requests the extradition of militants from a wide range of groups, including the PKK and FETO, in an ever-growing list, according to pro-government media outlets. 

Stockholm has repeatedly stressed that its judiciary is independent and has the final say in extraditions, but the new liberal government promised to tighten laws on fighting terrorism and controlling the group’s financial resources. 

In early December, Sweden extradited Mahmut Tat, a convicted PKK member who had fled to Sweden in 2015 but had his asylum request denied. Turkey’s Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag described the move as a “good start” but maintained that Turkey expected more. 

The top issue with Finland, which does not have a sizable Kurdish community, is defense cooperation. Finnish Defense Minister Antti Kaikkonen, who came to Ankara in early December, told journalists that there was no arms embargo on Turkey and that Helsinki assessed arms export requests on a case-by-case basis. But his remarks in Helsinki a week later seemed to indicate that his government may give an “initial green light” to recent Turkish requests to export military material despite a de facto ban in place since October 2019.

Speaking to a Finnish TV breakfast program last Monday, Kaikkonen said he could not disclose any further details about the preliminary requests to Finnish companies due to commercial confidentiality. However, he said, “If the companies submit their final license applications, they will be processed and the matter will be resolved.” On Sunday, the Finnish news agency quoted Defense Ministry senior adviser Riikka Pitkanen as saying that it was “possible” that the Finnish government will deal with these applications before next year’s parliamentary elections scheduled for April. 





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