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full screen Minister of Justice Gunnar Strömmer (M). Photo: Henrik Montgomery/TT
Sweden and Turkey agree to accelerate the fight against terrorism and organized crime. Key issues are to work to stop the criminals’ money – and to increase the exchange of information between the countries.
– Neither terrorism nor organized crime knows any national borders, says Minister of Justice Gunnar Strömmer (M) at a press conference in Ankara.
Strömmer and Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard (M) have met with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya.
The meeting is the starting point for the Security Compact conversation format that Sweden and Turkey agreed upon at the NATO summit in Vilnius in 2023.
Higher tempo
Sharing more information and doing it at a faster pace is “an absolutely central issue”, according to Strömmer.
– It is both important to access the gang leaders who avoid Swedish justice in Turkey, and so that we can access, for example, organized crime in Sweden that uses the profits from crime to finance various terrorist groups, he tells TT.
As recently as Tuesday, there were reports that a Swedish gang member had been murdered in Istanbul and that a Swedish internationally wanted man had been arrested in Bodrum.
– More intensive cooperation requires both that our authorities do more and also that Turkish authorities do more. It’s about working closely together in concrete cases to get access to both terrorists and people who are active in the criminal networks, says Strömmer.
Funds terror
Turkey expressed to the Swedish ministers the importance of countries such as Sweden contributing to combating the terrorist-labeled PKK.
– We have confirmed that we also have an interest in contributing to that work and, for example, directing the spotlight on an organized crime that in some cases uses the profits to finance terrorist activities in the PKK or other terrorist organizations, says Strömmer.