Turkey fights back after Greece denies extradition request

ANKARA, Turkey: Turkey’s top diplomat on Friday threatened punitive measures against Greece, including scrapping an agreement on the return of migrants, after the Greek Supreme Court ruled against extraditing eight Turkish officers who escaped from their country by helicopter after the failed coup attempt.
The threat could also affect a wider migrant deal with the European Union.
“We will take all necessary steps, including the cancelation of the bilateral readmission agreement” on refugees, the state-run Anadolu Agency quoted Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, as saying in the Turkish Mediterranean resort of Antalya.
He was referring to an agreement with Greece which stipulates Turkey will take back migrants who crossed into Greece illegally and do not qualify for international protection.
If Turkey were to make good on its threat and cease cooperating with Greece on the issue of migrants, a larger deal with the EU could also be jeopardized.
“We cannot look positively upon countries that protect terrorists, traitors and coup plotters,” Cavusoglu said. “Greece must know this.”
“These are eight traitors who intended to kill our president — not petty criminals,” he added.
The Greek government said it had strongly condemned the July 15 coup attempt and that its perpetrators were not welcome in the country, but added that the Greek courts were independent.
“From the outset, the Greek government resolutely condemned the attempted coup and supported the democratically elected government and the observance of constitutional legality in our neighboring country,” Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said in a statement.
“Today we underscore, as we did then, that the perpetrators of the coup are not welcome in our country,” Tsipras said. “Within Greece, the sole authority responsible for the relevant judgment is the independent Greek justice system, whose decisions are binding.”
Meanwhile, Turkey’s justice ministry made a new extradition request for the eight Turkish servicemen, according to Anadolu Agency.
On Thursday, Greece’s Supreme Court rejected Ankara’s first request on the basis that the servicemen were unlikely to face a fair trial if returned to Turkey.
Lower courts had issued mixed decisions on the return of the officers in a series of separate hearings.
The extradition case has soured complicated ties between neighbors and NATO allies Greece and Turkey, which remain at odds over war-divided Cyprus and boundaries in the Aegean Sea.