A Turkish military helicopter landed in Greece Saturday carrying eight officers seeking asylum Greek police have said. The Black Hawk type helicopter landed after signalling it was in distress to authorities at Alexandroupolis airport, north of Greece.
Seven of those on board were in military uniform and are believed to have participated in the attempted coup, ERT TV said. According to Athens News Agency, the asylum seekers comprised three majors, three captains and two sergeant majors.
However, Turkey‘s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Ankara had requested Athens to send back the eight “traitors”. “We have requested Greece to extradite the eight traitors as soon possible,” Cavusoglu told HaberTurk television. An official of the Greek National Defence General Staff said, “the helicopter is scheduled to be sent back immediately to Turkey“. “As far as the asylum seekers are concerned, we are going to proceed according to the international law” Olga Gerovassili, the Greek government spokeswoman, said.
She said Athens was “in constant contact with the Turkish authorities”, and would take into account the fact that “the asylum seekers took part in a coup against the Turkish constitution”.
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras had early Saturday expressed his “support for the democratically elected” government in Turkey.
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