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ANKARA/ISTANBUL: Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu warned Greece on Tuesday that Ankara did not want it to become a “safe haven” for plotters of last year’s coup attempt, citing the 995 people who have applied for asylum since the failed putsch.
Speaking at a joint news conference with his Greek counterpart, Nikos Kotzias, Cavusoglu said the asylum seekers needed to be evaluated to determine those linked to the network of the US-based cleric Turkey accuses of masterminding the putsch.
Kotzias said the decisions on asylum seekers were made by the Greek judiciary and had to be respected.
Graft probe
Turkish media reported Tuesday that businessman and leading civil society activist Osman Kavala is being detained as part of an investigation into a 2013 corruption probe, but also over last year’s attempted coup.
According to the Dogan news agency, Kavala was arrested as part of the investigation into corruption allegations that broke in December 2013 while President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was prime minister.
Erdogan denounced the scandal at the time, saying it was a “dirty” plot by his arch-foe, US-based Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen, to bring down his government.
Erdogan’s government is now looking into the initial probe, which triggered the resignation of three ministers.
Metin Topuz, a US consulate employee in Istanbul who has been held since Sept. 25, is also being investigated as part of the same probe, Dogan reported.
The staffer’s arrest led to the deterioration of US-Turkey relations as the NATO allies’ embassies suspended mutual visa services.
Another US consulate employee was previously summoned by police over the same investigation, Dogan added.
Gulen, who lives in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania, is accused of ordering the failed July 2016 coup against Erdogan, and authorities are reportedly also investigating Kavala over links to the coup.
Journalists on trial
Six journalists appeared in a Turkish court on terror charges Tuesday for reporting on a trove of allegedly hacked emails suggesting misconduct by Turkey’s energy minister.
The defendants are accused of disseminating propaganda for terrorist groups and other terror-related offenses after their reports on Berat Albayrak, a son-in-law of Erdogan. The reports were based on emails reportedly stolen from Albayrak’s personal email account by hackers and made available on WikiLeaks. The government has not confirmed their authenticity.
Speaking outside the Istanbul courthouse, defendant Derya Okatan, managing editor of Etkin News Agency, insisted she and colleagues were acting in the public’s interest.
Three of the defendants have been in jail for over 10 months. Okatan and two others were released from custody in January pending the outcome of the trial.