Dozens of Turkish soldiers working at the country’s NATO mission are seeking asylum in Germany, newspaper Tagesschau has reported on Saturday.
The newspaper reported that approximately 40 officers are seeking asylum.
Germany’s Federal Department of Immigration and Refugees has said that the issue will be examined, as is done with all asylum requests received.
Stephan Mayer, a member of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s sister-party CSU, told the newspaper: “There is no doubt that we cannot return these soldiers to Turkey.”
Another group of eight Turkish soldiers seeking asylum in Greece, after a failed coup attempt on July 15, have been remanded into custody in Athens, following a decision from the Supreme Court to not extradite them to Turkey.
Since the decision, denying Turkey’s extradition request, Ankara has criticized Athens, and said that relations between the two countries could be affected.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has threatened the cancellation of a bilateral agreement between Ankara and Athens for the readmission of refugees and migrants to Turkey.
The readmission agreement is part of a broader EU framework agreed in March 2016 in an effort to quell the waves of individuals reach Greece’s Aegean islands, seeking asylum in Europe.
Source: ANA-MPA
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