NAN-F-41
Asylum
Ankara, Oct. 24, 2017 (Reuters/NAN) Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu urged Greece on Tuesday not to become a “safe haven” for plotters of 2016 failed coup attempt, citing the 995 people who applied for asylum since the failed putsch.
Speaking at a joint news conference with his Greek counterpart, Nikos Kotzias, Cavusoglu said asylum seekers needed to be evaluated to determine those linked to the network of U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen.
Gulen had been accused and blamed by Turkey for masterminding the putsch.
“We would not want our neighbor Greece, with whom we are improving our ties, to be a safe haven for Gulenists.
“We believe these applications will be evaluated meticulously and that traitors will not be given credit,” Cavusoglu said.
Responding to Cavusoglu’s comments, Kotzias said the decisions on asylum seekers were made by the Greek judiciary and had to be respected even if “it doesn’t please some”.
Relations between Turkey and Greece were further strained in May after a Greek court ruled that eight Turkish soldiers who fled to Greece following last year’s coup attempt should not be extradited.
Turkey alleges the men, who fled to Greece in a military helicopter as the July coup unfolded, were involved in efforts to overthrow President Tayyip Erdogan and has repeatedly demanded they be sent back.
Greek courts have blocked two extradition requests by Ankara, drawing an angry rebuke from Turkey and highlighting tensed relations between NATO allies, who remain at odds over issues from territorial disputes to ethnically split Cyprus.
“Unfortunately, the Greek courts did not extradite (the eight soldiers), and this has greatly disappointed us.
“Two other soldiers, accused of trying to assassinate Erdogan on the night of the coup, had also fled to Greece, and that Turkey had demanded their extradition,” Cavusoglu said.
In the aftermath of the coup, some 50,000 people have been jailed pending trial and more than 150,000 have been sacked or suspended from their jobs in the military, public and private sectors.
Rights groups and Turkey’s Western allies have said that Erdogan is using the failed coup as a pretext to crush dissent, but the government says the measures are necessary to fight the threats it is facing. (Reuters/NAN)
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Edited by Celine-Damilola Oyewole/Sadiya Hamza