Greece Moves to Cancel Turkish Soldier’s Asylum

Date: 31 December 2017 - 20:11

News ID: ۴۸۳۰۶

ATHENS (Dispatches) -- The Greek government said that it had filed a request for the cancellation of the asylum granted to a Turkish soldier accused of involvement in last year’s coup attempt.
Greece’s administrative court of appeal will now look into the case.
Eight Turkish soldiers fled to Greece following Turkey’s abortive July 2016 coup. Seven of them applied for asylum and were rejected but have been kept in preventive custody.
Angered by a decision to grant asylum to the eighth soldier by the Greek asylum service committee, which is a panel of judges and experts, Turkey said Saturday that the move would affect bilateral relations and cooperation.
Athens said it was following its standing position regarding the eight soldiers, "as it has been repeatedly expressed, also in public”, a government official said.
The Greek government has said that it does not support coup plotters and that the country’s justice system is independent.
A Greek police official said the soldier who was granted asylum would be released from custody. "By granting asylum to one of eight coup plotters involved in the 15 July coup, Greece has once again showed that it is a country that protects and embraces coup plotters with this decision,” Turkey’s foreign ministry said in a statement.
Greek courts have blocked two extradition requests by Turkish authorities, drawing an angry rebuke from Ankara and highlighting the tense relations between the NATO allies, who remain at odds over various issues.
During his visit to Greece earlier this month, Turkey’s foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoolu, said Ankara did not want Greece to turn into a safe haven for coup plotters.
The two neighbors teetered on the brink of war in 1974, 1987 and 1996 over long-running disputes over ethnically divided Cyprus, mineral rights in the Aegean Sea and sovereignty over uninhabited islets in the Aegean.