Turkish interior minister in Athens: “Greece must not become a haven for criminals”, asks for extraditions of Gülen movement members

Turkish Interior Minister Mustafa Çiftçi asked Athens to speed up the extradition of wanted persons and members of the Gülen movement, which Ankara calls FETÖ, in his meeting with Greece’s Minister of Citizen Protection Michalis Chrysochoidis in Athens, as reported by Sabah on October 8. The visit had been announced as an “official working visit” on cooperation against cross-border crime. It took place at a time of tension, a few weeks after Turkish challenges to which the Greek government responded.

What the Turkish minister said

Çiftçi claimed that heads of criminal organisations arrested in Greece continue, while in custody, to communicate with their organisations and to arrange actions, and stressed that Greece “must not be a place where criminals can take refuge”. “We expect the procedures for the extradition of these persons to be speeded up,” he said. On FETÖ, he argued that it abuses refugee status and is a threat to Greece’s own public order as well. “Our expectation of you, our friends, is that you see the real face of FETÖ and extradite its members to our country,” he said.

Migration and organised crime

The Turkish minister also referred to cooperation on migration, including through the trilateral mechanism with Bulgaria, and thanked the Greek side for operations against Turkish criminal organisations in Greece, which he said had increased thanks to real-time information sharing. The Greek side has not made public a position on the requests for the extradition of Gülen movement members, which concern persons with asylum status or pending applications. Greek judicial authorities have in the past rejected a series of such requests from Ankara.

Extraditions cancelled at the last minute

Çiftçi complained that in several cases an extradition was cancelled or suspended at the final stage, after tickets and the transfer schedule had already been arranged and Turkish police had arrived in Greece or at the land border. He cited pending trials in Greece and last-minute appeals by the wanted persons to the European Court of Human Rights as the causes. “Such incidents have unfortunately become more frequent recently,” he said, and proposed using the existing Readmission Agreement so that deportation is applied where the conditions are met. He also asked for faster information exchange through Interpol on Turkish citizens who apply for asylum in Greece.

To support his requests, the Turkish minister presented Ankara’s figures: since the beginning of the year there have been 1,741 operations against organised crime, 625 organisations have been dismantled, 22 of them international, and 8,170 of their members have been remanded in custody. The idea of deportations in place of judicial extraditions could bypass the scrutiny of the Greek courts, which matters particularly for those who have applied for or received asylum.