Sweden has an approach to "protect" terrorists as it has either rejected or failed to respond to Turkiye's requests for extradition of fugitive terror group members, Anadolu Agency has learned.

According to sources, Sweden refused the extradition and granted citizenship to Mehmet Sirac Bilgin, Aysel Alhan, Aziz Turan, Ragip Zarakolu, and Halef Tak, who are all affiliated with the PKK/YPG terror group.

The extradition request of FETO members, including Harun Tokak, a senior operative of the terror group and its so-called Israel representative, as well as Bulent Kenes, a former editor of FETO's English-language mouthpiece Today’s Zaman, was also not responded to.

Similarly, Stockholm never got back to Turkiye's demand for the extradition of FETO members Levent Kenez and Yilmaz Ayten, who was granted asylum in Sweden after living in Afghanistan for years.

In its more than 35-year terror campaign against Turkiye, the PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Turkiye, the US, and EU – has been responsible for the deaths of over 40,000 people, including women, children, and infants. The YPG is PKK’s Syrian offshoot.

FETO and its US-based leader Fetullah Gulen orchestrated the defeated coup of July 15, 2016 in Turkiye, in which 251 people were killed and 2,734 injured.

Ankara accuses FETO of being behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police, and judiciary./aa

Russia is subjecting Crimean Tartars to the same repressive policies of the Soviet era, the leader of the Crimean Tatars said Thursday. 

Mustafa Abdulcemil Kirimoglu, who is also a deputy in Ukraine’s parliament, was speaking to Anadolu Agency on the 78th anniversary of the Crimean Tatars’ deportation from their historical homeland to Siberia by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin in 1944.

What happened in 1944 was the Crimean Tatar genocide, Kirimoglu said, noting that up to 46% of the deported population lost their lives within the first two years.

Kirimoglu said the Soviet administration made efforts to erase any traces of the Tatars’ legacy in Crimea by banning their language and even demolishing cemeteries

Against this background, he said, Crimean Tatars, including himself, struggled to return to their homeland and regain their rights for around 50 years.

Referring to Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014, Kirimoglu emphasized that Russia conducted a systematic policy of oppression against Crimean Tatars.

Consequently, over 30,000 of them fled from the peninsula, while some of those who stayed were killed or went missing, he said.

He said Russia through terror policies aimed to force Crimean Tatars, which comprised 13% of the population, out of the peninsula.

On the ongoing war against Ukraine, he said that Russia’s invasion is not going as it expected or planned.

Kirimoglu noted that the war presents an opportunity for the liberation of Crimea from Russian occupation.

An increasing number of Crimean residents, around 95% now, support the end of the Russian occupation, he said.

Kirimoglu also praised Turkiye’s support for both Ukraine and Crimean Tatars and underlined that Turkiye did not recognize Russia’s annexation of Crimea.

Russian forces entered the Crimean Peninsula in February 2014, with Russian President Vladimir Putin formally dividing the region into two separate federal subjects of the Russian Federation the following month.

Crimea's ethnic Tatars have faced persecution since Russia's 2014 takeover of the peninsula, a situation Turkiye has decried.

Turkiye and the US, as well as the UN General Assembly, view the annexation as illegal.

Kirimoglu and the president of the Crimean Tatar National Assembly, Refat Cubarov, were banned from entering the peninsula after the annexation.

The Crimean Tatar National Assembly was branded an "extremist organization" and its activities were banned.

Some 2,500 Crimean Tatars who had direct ties to the assembly and everyone who had relations with it became members of the “extremist organization.”

Due to pressure from the Russian administration, thousands of Crimean Tatars had to leave the peninsula.

Arrests of Crimean Tatars at their homes and mosques continue on charges of them being members of a “terrorist organization.”/aa

The “Israeli” army on Thursday said it will not open a criminal investigation into the killing of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh.

"There was no need to open a Military Police investigation at this stage," the Jerusalem Post quoted an “Israeli” military statement as saying.

The statement cited "no real suspicion of a criminal act" in Abu Akleh's killing, adding that the army's interim investigation could not determine whether she was killed by “Israeli” or Palestinian gunfire.

On May 11, Abu Akleh, 51, was covering an “Israeli” military raid near the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank when she was shot dead. Palestinian officials and her employer, Al Jazeera, said she was killed by “Israeli” forces.

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry slammed the decision, and held “Israel” fully responsible for the killing.

Many governments, rights groups, and press bodies have sought a transparent probe into the veteran Palestinian journalist's killing.

Canada announced Thursday that it has banned two Chinese firms -- telecom giant Huawei Technologies and ZTE -- from participating in the country's 5G wireless networks. 

Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino and Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry Francois-Philippe Champagne made the announcement at a joint press conference.

Mendicino said that after a lengthy and careful study, the two Chinese firms were excluded from competing in Canada's 5G network installation.

Mendicino said there was too much "high risk" in allowing Huawei or ZTE to have a hand in the new network.

"(It's) part of a robust strategy to protect our national security," he said.

China has been accused of cyberattacks and intrusion against the Canadian government and infrastructure.

5G is the 5th generation mobile network designed to connect everyone and everything together, and as such handles extremely sensitive materials.

The move also brings Canada in line with its allies in the so-called Five Eyes intelligence alliance which previously banned or restricted Huawei from any role in establishing their 5G networks. The Five Eyes countries are Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK and the US.

"This (ban) follows a full review (and) this is very much in line with our allies," Champagne said.

Canada's announcement may have been delayed because of the conflict over the arrest of Huawei Technologies’ Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou in December 2018. She was seized at the request of the US government, who wanted her to face fraud charges in the US.

Beijing was outraged at the arrest and demanded Meng's immediate release. When that did not happen, two Canadians were arrested shortly afterward and jailed in China on spying charges.

Meng was put under house arrest and a lengthy extradition hearing before finally being released in the fall of 2021.

The charges against Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig were dropped and they were released soon after Meng was freed and returned to China./aa

The price of Bitcoin climbed above $30,000 on Thursday as cryptocurrencies are seeking direction but have failed to recover from massive losses in the last two weeks.

Bitcoin, the world’s biggest crypto by market cap, was more than $30,000 at 11.15 a.m. EDT, while it was trading around that level at 4 p.m. EDT up 2.5% for the day.

The price of Ethereum, the world’s largest altcoin, was at $1,995 for a daily increase of 1%.

The crypto market lost almost half of its value during the last six weeks as the total value of the crypto market is down to $1.27 trillion on Thursday, from $2.19 trillion April 4.

Most of the losses came during the past two weeks after the US Federal Reserve increased interest rates by 50 basis points May 4 and signaled more hikes are on the way in June and July.

On top of the Fed's monetary tightening, the crypto market is also struggling with inner hurdles, especially with the controversial stable coin UST plummeting since last week.

Initially designed to be pegged one-to-one with the dollar, the price of UST continued to decline and has fallen to $0.08795.

Luna Foundation Guard, the organization behind UST, sold at least $2.1 billion worth of Bitcoin in the past 10 days to support the price of UST, according to figures released Monday.

Many crypto investors partially blame the organization for selling its Bitcoin reserves and causing a decline in its price to bring the value of UST back to $1.

A positive development for the cryptos came with Russia's Industry and Trade Minister Denis Manturov saying Wednesday that his country would legalize cryptocurrencies sooner or later as a means of payment, as Moscow struggles with western sanctions on various sectors, especially banking, industry and energy./aa

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Thursday that migration is a global challenge and urged "active international cooperation" to tackle it.

"Because we fail to address these root causes, we must now deal with the consequence,” he said in an address at the first-ever International Migration Review at the UN General Assembly. “Migration requires a global and sustainable approach."

The Forum serves as a platform for member states to assess the Global Compact for Migration, the first inter-governmental agreement covering international migration.

"We are actively engaged in all initiatives to uphold dignity, well-being and the rise of migrants. That is why we fully support the Global Compact for Migration," he said.

Cavusoglu said Turkiye is committed to migration policies in accordance with the agreement.

"Voluntary, safe and dignified return shall be encouraged. Resettlement must be more widely applied for those who are unable to return," he added. "More importantly, we should address the root causes of migration we should provide urgent humanitarian and development assistance."

Turkiye has been hosting the world's largest refugee population since 2014, said the minister, adding that after the outbreak of the conflict in Ukraine, it received an additional 145,000 people.

Regarding Syrian refugees, Cavusoglu said 500,000 have returned to areas Turkiye cleared of the YPG terror group -- the Syrian branch of PKK -- and noted that Ankara is working on a plan that "will facilitate the safe and voluntary returns of 1 million Syrians."/aa

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on Thursday said one of its teams has registered hundreds of Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) this week from the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol.

The ICRC, the international body that seeks to aid victims of war and ensure the observance of humanitarian law by all parties in a conflict, in a statement, said it started on Tuesday to register combatants leaving the Azovstal steel plant, including the wounded.

The registration was done at the Russian and Ukrainian request after the Russian forces attacked Ukraine's southern port Mariupol when the war started on Feb. 24.

Mariupol is a critical location for Ukraine's economy since it is home to the largest port in the Sea of Azov for exports such as steel, iron, and agricultural products and imports.

The seized city lies between Crimea, the region illegally annexed by Moscow in 2014, and Donbas, an area where Ukraine has been fighting secessionist elements for years.

Industrial facilities

But while Russia seized control of the city that once had a population of around 450,000, with extensive industrial facilities, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on May 6 that Mariupol was already completely destroyed and there was nothing in reality for Russia to take.

The Red Cross said the POW registration was still ongoing, though it did not cite the number of POWs. However, Russia claimed 959 Ukrainians had surrendered.

“The ICRC is not transporting POWs to the places where they are held,” said the statement from Geneva.

Russia's Defense Ministry said on Monday it had reached an agreement with besieged Ukrainian servicemen on the evacuation of the wounded from the steel plant.

The registration process that the ICRC facilitated involves the individual filling out a form with personal details like name, date of birth, and closest relative.

This information allows the ICRC to track those captured and help them keep in touch with their families.

“In accordance with the mandate given to the ICRC by states under the 1949 Geneva Conventions, the ICRC must have immediate access to all POWs in all places where they are held,” said the Red Cross.

“The ICRC must be allowed to interview prisoners of war without witnesses, and the duration and frequency of these visits should not be unduly restricted.”

Whenever circumstances permit, each party to the conflict must take all possible measures to search for and collect the dead, the statement added.

The ICRC said it maintains "a confidential dialogue with the parties to the conflict" on their obligations under international humanitarian law./aa