Pavlopoulos: ‘Inconceivable’ to discuss exchanging Greek with Turkish soldiers

Any talk of an exchange between the two Greek officers detained in Turkey with the eight Turkish servicemen who sought asylum in Greece after the foiled coup attempt in 2016 is “inconceivable,” President Prokopis Pavlopoulos said on Sunday.

He was responding to comments made late on Saturday by Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who reportedly requested the extradition of “Turkey’s 8” in exchange for the release of the Greek soldiers who have been imprisoned since they strayed into Turkish territory in early March during a border patrol.

“What some people are implying, and unfortunately the Turkish President – if what he said has been correctly attributed – that there is a question of an exchange, we are saying that this is inconceivable,” he said during a visit to a village in Arcadia, in the Peloponnese.

“It is also regrettable that there is such confusion between soldiers who are being arbitrarily detained and Turkish citizens who have been granted political asylum in accordance with the rules of international law,” he added.