German Chancellor Angela Merkel intervened to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the two Greek soldiers issue currently in Turkish custody. US Ambassador to Greece said the US is supportive to Greece on the same issue. Meanwhile the two Greek soldiers will reportedly be taken to the court early Tuesday afternoon.
U.S. Ambassador in Athens Geoffrey Pyatt said that the United States were supportive of the approach taken by the Greek government on the issue of the two Greek soldiers held in Turkey.
“I’ll simply say that the United States is fully engaged on the question of the two soldiers, we’re very supportive of the approach that the Tsipras government has taken to maintaining communications with Turkey and we hope that this issue will be resolved expeditiously,” Pyatt said in response to journalists’ questions on the issue. The US ambassador was in Andravida Air Base to attend the multi-national Air Force Exercise Iniochos 2018.
Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias revealed late on Monday that German chancellor Angela Merkel had contacted Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan over the issue of the two Greek soldiers.
JOURNALIST: Minister, I want to ask about the issue of the Greek soldiers being held in Turkey. You are among the key players in the talks with the EU and Mrs. Mogherini. The question right now is whether you see there being any interest on the part of the European partners with regard to the effort to resolve this matter.
N. KOTZIAS: The European partners are showing their solidarity and support. As you know, Chancellor Merkel has already intervened with Mr. Erdogan himself. I hope and would like to believe that there will be a positive development, in the sense that Turkey will not continue to use a day-to-day incident that happened on the border between the two states as a weapon in the long term.
After 20 days of judicial silence in Turkey, the two Greek soldiers will be taken from the high security prison in Edirne to the local court early Tuesday afternoon, media report. No further details have been revealed so far.
