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Finnish delegation started meetings in Ankara regarding NATO membership

25 October 2022 12:24 (UTC +04:00)

Finnish officials arrived in Türkiye on Tuesday to hold technical discussions with Turkish counterparts on Ankara's extradition requests for wanted terrorists as part of a recently reached agreement on the Nordic country's NATO membership, APA reports citing Daily sabah.

Finnish Justice Ministry officials met in the capital Ankara with a delegation headed by Kasım Çiçek, the director general of Foreign Relations and the European Union at the Turkish Justice Ministry.

During the meeting, Turkish officials are expected reiterate their request to the Finnish delegation to extradite members of two terrorist groups, the PKK and the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ), the latter the group behind the 2016 defeated coup in Türkiye. Evidence of the accused terrorists' crimes will also be laid out in documents.

Both Finland and its neighbor Sweden applied to become members of the defense alliance in the wake of Russia’s February invasion of Ukraine, abandoning longstanding policies of military nonalignment. Becoming a NATO member requires the unanimous support of all current members, including Türkiye.