A Turkish court rejected the third release requested submitted by the lawyers of the two Greek soldiers in custody in high security prison for 55th consecutive days. For the time being the prosecutor has not raised charges against the soldiers who accidentally entered into Turkish soil on March 1st.
The first two release requests on March 5th and March 27th were rejected by the Turkish justice authorities on the grounds that the two had no permanent residence in Turkey and their seized mobile phones were under investigation.
The third request was rejected on the grounds that the conditions have not changed.
Ecoumenical Patriarch Bartholomew was expected to raise the issue during a meeting with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday afternoon.
The European Union and the European Parliament have urged Ankara for the release of soldiers Aggelos Mitretodis and Dimitris Kouklatzis who they consider as “European soldiers” in Turkish custody.
However, Turkey’s response to pressure was the exchange of the Greek soldiers with the 8 Turkish servicemen who fled to Greece after the failed coup of 2016. The proposal came by President Erdogan personally on Saturday.
