ATHENS – Justice Minister Stavros Kontonis – who said he’d like to try eight Turkish soldiers seeking asylum in Greece – is upset at Turkey for keeping two Greek soldiers who accidentally strayed across the border on March 1 while on patrol during bad weather.
The Turkish soldiers fled to Greece from a failed coup attempt against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in July, 2016 in which they said they didn’t take part but ran in fear for the lives. He has since purged the military and civil society and gained near-dictatorial powers and now is seeking to stay in office with a snap poll he called for June 24.
Kontonis, noting that Greece had just recently returned a Turkish municipal worker who accidentally crossed the border, called on Turkey to do the same with the Greek soldiers. Military members on both sides who strayed across the border have been quickly returned in the past but Erdogan essentially said the Greek soldiers in this case are hostages and bargaining chips to force Greece to return the Turkish soldiers.
“It is not just the case of the Turk who entered Greek territory and was tried,” Kontonis told Parliament on May 7, said Kathimerini.
As we read in "The National Herald", he revealed that two more Turks who were detained recently at the port of Killini, in western Greece, were subsequently released by an administrative court in the city of Pyrgos, after the judge accepted the Turkish consulate in Athens as their fixed residence.
“I’m saying this to inform Parliament and the public, to make it clear that Greece respects the rule of law. Because when the Greek consulate attended the trial of the two Greek officers and declared the Greek consulate […] as their place of residence, the similar request to release them was not accepted by the Turkish court,” he said, referring to the court ruling in the city of Edirne.
“Greece upholds the rule of law and does not draw parallels between different illegal and irregular acts,” he said.
“This is a message, not only to the neighboring country, but also to the international community from which we expect a more stable attitude on the issue of the two Greek officers who, to this day, do not know what they are accused of,” he added.
Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras opposes asylum for the Turkish soldiers but said they would not be extradited and rejected Erdogan’s suggestion there should be a soldiers-for-soldiers swap to end the dilemma.
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