ANKARA, December 3 (Portal) – Sweden on Friday deported a Kurdish man with suspected links to the Kurdish militant group PKK, a government minister told Swedish television, as Ankara continues to pressure the Nordic country to meet its demands in return for the comply with NATO membership.
Mahmut Tat applied for asylum in Sweden in 2015 after being sentenced to six years and 10 months in Turkey for alleged links to the PKK. His most recent asylum application was rejected by the Swedish Migration Board last year.
Swedish Migration Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard did not respond to requests for comment, but told SVT that the government had no role in the decision.
“It’s about a deportation case where someone’s application for asylum was denied,” she told SVT. “The government has no role in deciding on asylum applications.”
Turkish state television TRT said Tat was taken to an Istanbul prison on Saturday. Swedish authorities were not immediately available for comment.
Sweden and Finland applied to join NATO in May in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but met objections from Turkey, which accused the two countries of harboring militants from the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and other groups.
Turkey said on Wednesday that Sweden and Finland had made progress towards NATO membership but that they still needed to do more to meet Ankara’s demands to tackle militant groups.
Other people Ankara is looking for include people with alleged ties to Fethullah Gülen — a Turkish cleric living in the United States accused of orchestrating the failed 2016 coup attempt against Erdogan.
Stockholm and Helsinki deny harboring militants but have pledged to work with Ankara to fully address its security concerns and lift arms embargoes.
NATO takes its decisions by consensus, which means both countries need the approval of all 30 countries. Only Turkey still rejects the membership of the two countries.
Reporting by Ece Toksabay and Johan Ahlander Editing by Ros Russell
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