(MENAFN) Sweden's promise to hand over a Turkish prisoner falls far short of Stockholm's pledges under a treaty opening the way for Ankara's NATO membership ambition, according to Turkey's justice minister on Thursday.
In the absence of Sweden's extradition of dozens of persons, it holds responsible for "terrorist," NATO member Turkey has threatened to halt Sweden's efforts to join the Western defense alliance.
Sweden and Finland, two other NATO aspirants, agreed in a non-binding agreement with Turkey in June to "expeditiously and comprehensively" review Ankara's requests for suspects connected to a failed coup attempt in 2016 and outlawed Kurdish militants.
Okan Kale, a man convicted of credit card fraud, was on a list of individuals sought by Ankara that was made public by Turkish media earlier this month. The Swedish government said earlier this month that it would extradite Kale.
Bekir Bozdag, the justice minister, told the conservative news outlet Milliyet that Sweden needs to go above and beyond to earn Turkey's trust.
In the first official government response to the extradition decision, Bozdag remarked, "If they think that by extraditing ordinary criminals to Turkey they will make us believe that they have fulfilled their promises, they are wrong."
He advised against testing Turkey.
One of the more hawkish members of Recep Tayyip Erdogan's administration is Bozdag.
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