While Turkey claimed that they sought the extradition of 4,500 suspects linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) from Germany, the German Justice Ministry said Turkey had asked for the extradition of only 53, Deutsche Welle reported on Friday.
According to the report, German Justice Ministry officials said Turkey had sought the extradition of 52 people from Germany last year and that Germany had agreed to extradite 20 involved in petty crime. The officials said Turkey requested that Germany return 53 people this year and shared their files with Germany, while Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said in July that Turkey had shared the files of 4,500 people accused of PKK membership with Germany.
German officials denied Erdoğan’s claims that Turkey had provided the files of 4,500 people or asked for their extradition.
The official statistics in Germany concerning extradition requests in 2016 will be announced in 2018 and the requests made in 2017 will be announced in 2019.
In response to a parliamentary question by the Left Party, the German government said Turkey had sought the extradition of 306 people between 2009 and 2015 and that Germany agreed to the extradition of 138.