Turkish FM urges Greece not to become refuge for FETO

By Fatih Hafiz Mehmet

ANKARA

Turkey doesn’t want Greece to become a refuge for members of FETO, the terrorist group behind last year’s defeated coup attempt in Turkey, the nation’s foreign minister said Tuesday.

Speaking at joint press conference with his Greek counterpart Nikos Kotzias, Mevlut Cavusoglu said since last year's defeated coup attempt in Turkey, 995 Turkish citizens have applied for asylum in Greece.

"All of them should be investigated to see how many are members of FETO," the Fetullah Terrorist Organization, Cavusoglu stressed.

Cavusoglu said they believe Greece will not tolerate traitors, despite its courts refusing to extradite eight former soldiers suspected of involvement in the defeated coup attempt.

"We have not lost our hope completely," he said.

Cavusoglu said eight FETO putschists and two other FETO traitors who were involved in an attempt to assassinate Turkey’s president had fled to Greece.

He said they were disappointed by this.

Greek courts rejected the extradition of all eight ex-soldiers who fled Turkey just after the collapse of last July’s defeated coup attempt, which left 250 people martyred and more than 2,100 injured.

They are accused of being involved in the defeated coup attempt, which was masterminded by FETO and the group’s leader, U.S.-based Fetullah Gulen.

‘Greece must implement ECHR rulings’

Cavusoglu also criticized his counterpart for calling the Turkish minority of Greece’s Western Thrace region a "Muslim minority".

"Nikos calls it a 'Muslim minority.' OK, but there are also other [non-Turkish] Muslim minorities in Greece. Why do you have difficulty accepting that they are Turks?"

"There are also European Court of Human Rights [ECHR] decisions. These must be implemented," Cavusoglu stressed.

One of the main Turkish groups in Western Thrace, the Xanthi (Iskece) Turkish Union (ITB), was closed down by Greece for having the word "Turkish" in its name.

After exhausting domestic remedies, the group applied to the ECHR, and in 2008 it won its case. Nearly a decade later, however, Athens has yet to implement the ruling.

Greece’s Western Thrace region is home to around 145,000 Muslim Turks.

Kotzias: ‘Whoever raises a weapon against democracy should face Turkish justice’

Kotzias, for his part, said he was a victim of the 1967 coup in Greece and he still remembers his trials in military court.

"I do not like coups," Kotzias said.

He said he was in Mongolia when the July 15, 2016 coup attempt took place in Turkey and that he returned the same day to Greece, and that they expressed support to Turkey’s democratic institutions.

"Whoever raises a weapon against democracy [in Turkey] should be brought before the justice of the Turkish Republic," he stressed.

But issues of granting asylum in Greece are made by the judiciary, not the government, Kotzias added.

He said court decisions may be liked or not, but everyone should respect them.