Two Greek soldiers detained in Turkish border area have been accused of espionage. “We are not spies, we have not crossed border intentionally,” said Lieutenant Aggelos Mitretodis in court. The crossing was done due to bad wear.
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The two Greek soldiers were caught near border River Mariza on Turkish territory and taken into custody. The court in West Turkish city of Edirne threw two soldiers “attempted military espionage” and “invade a military exclusion zone”.
At ir hearing, soldiers indicated that y had followed footsteps that brought m into contact with migrants. In region it had snowed heavily in past days, and it was also very foggy. The Greek-Turkish border is mostly marked by a fence. However, re are also not clearly marked zones – in such a forest area, two soldiers, according to Greek military data, ran.
Relations between NATO partners Turkey and Greece are tense. The Turkish government is calling for extradition of eight soldiers who, after coup attempt in July 2016, had dropped off with a helicopter to Greece. Also, exploration of south-east of Cyprus repeatedly leads to conflicts.
