Greece’s highest administrative court has again rejected a motion by the relevant ministry to overturn a lower authority’s decision to grant political asylum to one of eight Turkish servicemen who fled to the country in the wake of a failed July 2016 military coup in Turkey.
The Turkish state and the judiciary accuse the eight of being willing participants in the coup, repeatedly referring to “putschists”, and demanding their extradition to face severe felony charges.
According to reports in Athens on Wednesday, the Council of State (CoS) took the decision in a closed-door session.
Former Migration Policy Minister Yannis Mouzalas has filed an appeal to overturn the political asylum decision issued by the 3rd independent authority for refugees for one of the eight Turks.
While political asylum requests are judged separately, if confirmed, the ruling would, more-or-less, be a precedent for the other seven Turkish asylum seekers in the specific case.
The specific petitioner, identified as a helicopter co-pilot, will be freed under strict restrictions once the CoS decision is published.
In an eyebrow-raising response, Turkey’s foreign ministry, in a website post, referred to both “defiance” of international law, while calling on Greece’s independent judiciary to “refrain” from repeating the “same mistakes” in the future.
The full statement reads:
” ..the Greek Council of State, in defiance of the rules of international law, granted asylum to putschist Süleyman Özkaynakçı.
“It has been thereby reaffirmed by the international community that Greece is a country, which protects and shelters the putschists. We strongly condemn this decision that deeply offends the conscience of the Turkish nation.
“We hope that the Greek judiciary will refrain from repeating the same mistakes by taking similar biased decisions in the future. “
