While looking into the question concerning how many citizens of Turkey had received refugee status in EU countries over the 14-year span of 2008-2021, the publication Euronews on June 10, 2022, revealed that those numbers rose sharply after the attempted coup on the Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on July 15, 2016.

The investigative report, which, in particular, was concerned with Sweden’s and Finland’s numbers, was carried on Euronews‘ Turkish page. Reading between the lines, the article implies that Erdoğan is playing hardball with Sweden and Finland over their NATO membership applications not only because these two EU countries allegedly have allowed members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which many countries recognize as a terrorist organization, to reside in their countries. Similarly, NATO countries (which includes the majority of EU countries) allegedly have given asylum to members of the so-called FETO terrorist organization, which Erdoğan has implicated in the coup attempt against him. (According to Wikipedia, although the European Union, UK, Germany, US and many other countries stated that the Gülen Movement is not a terrorist organization and rejected the Turkish government’s statements regarding the Gülen Movement, the movement is designated as a terrorist organization by Turkey, Pakistan, and the Gulf Cooperation Council.) The full report follows:

One of Turkey’s demands connected to the specific conditions of Sweden’s and Finland’s NATO membership applications is that persons accused by Ankara of ‘terrorism’ be returned. So, how many Turkish citizens’ asylum applications have Sweden and Finland accepted in recent years? In the last 14 years, how many Turkish citizens received refugee status in European Union (EU) countries? Which country in Europe has the most Turkish refugees?

Sweden and Finland, who were experiencing security concerns after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, immediately applied for NATO membership. However, it was met with a result that they were not anticipating. Turkey didn’t give the two countries’ membership a green light. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is [not] defending Sweden’s and Finland’s supporting terror organizations.’ Erdoğan finally made this comment:

NATO is a security organization [note: the word Erdoğan uses here for ‘organization’ is ‘teşkilat,’ used more or less for official purposes], not an organization [note: here the word ‘örgüt’ is used specifically for a ‘terrorist organization’] that opens the door to terrorism. During the broadcasting of a terrorist leader’s speech on Swedish state television, we cannot say to them, “Go ahead, enter NATO. The same thing goes for Finland.”

Turkey accuses these two Scandinavian countries of leaving its demands for the return [of ‘terrorists’] unanswered. Justice Minister, Bekir Bozdağ, stated, “Unfortunately, at the moment very many European Union countries and the U.S. are giving serious public support to terrorist organizations. Finland and Sweden are at their head. Still as of today, not one of the FETO and PKK terrorists whose return Turkey has demanded has been returned to us.”

Per 100 asylum applications accepted in 2021, three were Turkish citizens

According to data announced by the EU Office of Statistics (Eurostat), EU countries accepted the asylum applications of 267,360 persons in 2021. Included in this number are those whose protest or appeal applications ended favorably. Among these persons are 8,395 Turkish citizens. That is to say, in 2021, for every one hundred refugees which the EU accepted, three are Turkish citizens. In 2021, while Sweden gave refugee status to 360 Turkish citizens, Finland concluded 110 applications favorably.

In looking at the 14-year total between 2008-2021, EU countries accepted 52,715 Turkish citizens’ asylum applications. While Sweden, in the course of the 14 years, gave 2,090 persons asylum, Finland approved the applications of 880 persons. However, looking at the order of countries that have given the most refugee status to Turkish citizens, Sweden [is] 6^th, Finland, 9^th.

In this 14-year time span, Germany [accounted for] approximately half of the 52,715 admissions. Germany accepted the asylum applications of 25,015 persons, meaning altogether, 47/100. Second, with 8,975 is France; Belgium recognized right of asylum for 3,330 persons. Greece is 7^th with 1,325 admissions.

A big increase after July 15

In the 9-year span from 2008-2016, EU countries accepted 11,780 Turkish citizens’ asylum applications. After the July 15, 2016 coup attempt this number quickly rose. In the 5 years between 2017-2021, 40,935 Turkish citizens received refugee status.

A similar situation is also valid for Sweden and Finland: between 2008-2016, Sweden concluded 265 Turkish citizens’ applications favorably and Finland, 125. This number rose between 2017-2021 to 825 and 755 [respectively.]

On the other hand, these numbers comprise all the asylum applications that were concluded favorably. The number of asylum applications is much higher. Applications that are in-process or being appealed are evaluated as applications that have been concluded unfavorably.