Finland’s top legislator has ruled out placating Turkey to win approval for the country’s NATO membership bid, saying parliament can’t change laws and extradite “innocent people” whom Ankara considers to be terrorists.
Speaker of Parliament Matti Vanhanen, a former prime minister, made his comments in an interview with Finnish public broadcaster Yle on Saturday, responding to claims by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that NATO applicants Finland and Sweden have harbored people linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, who Ankara considers “terrorists.” Erdogan earlier this week said he would veto the two Nordic countries’ NATO bids – unanimous consent is required for the military alliance to accept new members – at least partly because they have refused to extradite PKK “terrorists” to Turkey.
“On the points concerning our rule of law, Turkey must realize that we cannot agree to [change them] politically,” Vanhanen said. “Innocent people are not extradited to another country, especially if there is a risk that they will be imprisoned or sentenced without justification.”