Following Turkey's approval of Finland and Sweden's NATO accession, the Finnish Justice Ministry has refused to review already rejected Turkish extradition requests. Ankara is demanding that a new decision be made on six rejected extradition requests, ministry representative Sonja Varpasuo told AFP.

"According to the Turkish government, the request concerns various offences related to terrorism," Varpasuo said. However, she said the decisions were final and could not be appealed. Turkey was therefore told that “the cases cannot be reassessed".

In response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Finland and Sweden decided in May to join NATO after decades of alliance neutrality. Turkey was the only country of the 30 members to oppose the admission of the two Nordic countries.

The leadership in Ankara accuses Sweden and Finland of harbouring dozens of "terror suspects" from Turkey and demands their extradition. These are mainly Kurdish activists accused of being close to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and alleged members of the movement of Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen - the disgraced political mentor of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who is said to be responsible for the coup attempt in 2016.

Quid pro quo for agreeing to join NATO

In a memorandum signed by Sweden and Finland at the NATO summit in Madrid at the end of June, the two countries promised Turkey that they would consider Turkish extradition requests "expeditiously and thoroughly". Erdoğan then abandoned his opposition to the admission of Sweden and Finland to NATO. In August, the Swedish government announced a first deportation. However, Turkish Justice Minister Bekir Bozdağ described this as "insufficient" - the person concerned is a Turkish citizen who was sentenced to a total of 14 years in Turkey in 2013 and 2016 for fraud offences.

Eleven extradition requests since 2019

Turkey has approached Finland with an extradition request eleven times since 2019. The latest request was made the previous month, according to the Finnish Ministry of Justice. The ministry did not disclose information on the background of the case.