Outside Greece the eight Turkish soldiers accused of being coup plotters in 2016

Away from Greece are the eight Turkish soldiers, who had entered Alexandroupolis by helicopter a few hours after the coup attempt on July 15, 2016 in Turkey.

According to “Ta Nea”, almost 6 years later, the eight soldiers left at an unsuspecting time and have been deployed mainly in Canada, Belgium and Germany. The escape operation of the “8” who resided in the Police Department of West Attica and then in the facilities of EL.AS. and the Armed Forces in northeastern Attica, reportedly took place in two phases – last summer and a second year a little later – without their movements being noticed.

Their safe departure was achieved after the contacts of themselves and their family members (s.s. certainly with Greek surveillance) in order to be accepted in the countries where they finally went, just as happened with their other persecuted compatriots, after the coup attempt in Turkey.

According to the article, one of the “key” people in the case was the lawyer and law professor Christos Manolopoulos, who represented some of the eight, handled critical aspects of their legal actions and today confirms that they are now far away in Greece.

According to information at the end of 2020 there were actions to eliminate the suspended prison sentences imposed on them by the judicial authorities of Thrace for illegal entry into the country. Thus, the last obstacle in the process of moving to other countries was overcome.

It is noted that Erdogan’s government accuses the eight of playing a key role in the bloody attacks in Istanbul and especially on the Bosphorus bridges on the night of the coup. For this reason, in fact, he informed the Greek authorities of visual material with their movements at the critical hours, before finally landing by helicopter in Evros. For their part, the military, through their memoranda, claimed that they were only carrying out a rescue operation. And they clarified: “We have never been coup plotters or terrorists and we have not had any involvement with Fethullah Gulen’s FETO.”.

Weighting the data, Athens did not accept – at various stages – the request for their extradition to the neighbor, although Erdogan and members of his government reiterated it in all their contacts with Greek officials. In fact, in May 2018, the Supreme Court, citing international conventions, definitively denied their extradition, on the grounds that they would not receive a fair trial, while not finding them guilty or innocent of what the Turkish state blames them. Then, following a conference of the Plenary Session of the Council of State, the Turkish military were released with travel documents at their disposalin order to go to any country they wished.