All eight are junior military officers, “up to level of major,” a senior Greek official said. They told Greek authorities that they supported the failed coup, the official said. Their Turkish military helicopter landed in the Greek city of Alexandrouplis, near the border with Turkey, around noon on Saturday.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has asked Greece to extradite the eight officers, according to a message he wrote on Twitter. Greek officials confirmed they have received the formal extradition request Saturday afternoon.
Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias spoke on the telephone with Mr. Casuvoglu, according to a statement by the Greek Foreign Ministry. Mr. Kotzias told Mr. Cavusoglu that Greece will examine the asylum requests, as required by international law. “However, it will be taken into account seriously that, in their country, they are accused of violating the constitutional order and attempting to overthrow the democratic regime,” Mr. Kotzias told Mr. Cavusoglu, according to the statement.
However, Mr. Casuvoglu wrote on Twitter that during the phone conversation, Mr. Kotzias “said that 8 traitors who fled to Greece will be returned to Turkey as soon as possible.”
The lawyer assigned to four of the Turkish military officers, Ilia Marinaki, said they were all medical crew in Istanbul, didn’t know about the coup and they all have families and children in Turkey.
Greek government officials, however, believe they were involved in the coup and say if that is eventually proven to be the case, they will be extradited to Turkey.
According to Mrs. Marinaki, the officers received orders Friday evening to transfer some injured people with their helicopters. They followed orders without knowing that a coup was under way. At some point, police opened fire against their helicopters.
“By that point they knew what a coup was under way and they feared that they would be executed as participants if they stayed in Turkey,” Mrs. Marinaki said. “So they decided to get on the one helicopter that had not been hit by police and fly to Greece to request asylum.”
Greek officials said the Black Hawk helicopter carrying the eight officers sent a distress signal and requested permission for an emergency landing. It was escorted to Alexandroupolis’s airport by two Greek F-16 jet fighters.
The eight men removed all badges and insignia from their uniforms, making it initially hard to know their rank, Greek officials said. But contacts with Turkish authorities established that the men included two majors and other more junior officers.
All were arrested by Greek police as soon as they touched down, charged with illegal entry into the country and jeopardizing Greece’s friendly relationship with Turkey, and transferred to a local police station, according to local and judicial officials.
The officials said that the country’s defense chiefs have informed their Turkish counterparts they will help to return the helicopter to Turkey immediately, and that Turkey told them it would send a delegation to Alexandroupolis to retrieve it.
The eight officers are expected to appear before a Greek prosecutor on Sunday, a judicial official said. The asylum procedure is expected to start on Monday.
Greek officials said the asylum requests and the extradition procedures would be handled speedily and they would both take up to 15 days. However, the Turkish officers might appeal a rejection of their asylum claims, first in Greece, where a new appeals board for asylum claimants has just been set up by the Greek government to speed up efforts to send refugees and migrants who cross the Aegean back to Turkey.
As a last resort, the officers could take their appeal to in international courts, the Greek officials said.
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras was expected to speak by phone with Mr. Erdogan and the Turkish prime minister on Sunday.
Greece and Turkey, both NATO members, have longstanding tensions over territorial disputes and have nearly come to blows in recent history. Saturday was the first time that members of Turkish military landed in Greece seeking asylum.
By: Nektaria Stamouli (The Wall Street Journal).
Photo: Fars News.
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