Turkey brings to Helsinki a list of names of people it demands to be extradited to Turkey. Finland and Sweden do not say a word about the content of the official-level meeting.
Pirjo Auvinen,
Tom Kankkonen,
Pauli Lahti
The Turkish delegation will arrive in Finland on Friday to continue NATO negotiations with Finland and Sweden.
The host country, Finland, does not disclose to the public the location of the meeting or its schedule. Finland is represented at the official level meeting by the State Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Jukka Salovaara.
– This is a security issue. If we were to tell where the high-ranking Turkish officials are at any given time, it would give a rather indifferent image of us, says Salovaara.
It’s only about the organizational meeting
Friday’s meeting is the first of its kind since the foreign ministers of Finland, Sweden and Turkey signed a cooperation document in June in Madrid on the terms of the military alliance joining NATO.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ strict information line also keeps comments on the agenda of the meeting: no comment.
If Turkey wants to, it can single-handedly prevent Finland and Sweden from joining NATO. Therefore, the applicant countries must listen carefully to what conditions Turkey sets for them.
– We ask to turn to the host country Finland for questions regarding the details of the meeting, was the response of the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs to Yleisradio’s inquiry.
Turkey wants practical action
Turkey is sending a large delegation to Finland. In addition to ministry officials, representatives of security agencies also board the Helsinki plane.
Turkey has on many occasions demanded Sweden, in particular, to hand over the Kurds, whom it calls terrorists, back to Turkey. Some of the extradition requests also concern the religious leader accused of the 2016 coup attempt by Fethullah Gülen followers.
The title of the website is pointedly worded: “You hand over these terrorists”.
There will be no press conference after today’s meeting. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland has promised to inform about the meeting in the afternoon.
You can discuss the topic on 27.6. until 11 p.m.