Turkey did not allow the President of the Pan-pontian Federation of Greece to enter the country raising tensions with Greece.
While members of the Turkish government just a few days ago accused Greece of violating human rights and oppressing the Muslim minority in Thrace, today with this move Turkey revealed its intentions since the president of the federation, for no reason, was being held by Turkish authorities at the airport of Constantinople and an expulsion order has been issued.
As announced by the Pampontian Federation of Greece, “the President of the Federation, Mr. G. Varythymiadis, is being held at the airport of Istanbul and is not allowed to enter the country. The purpose of his visit to the neighbor was to attend the Divine Liturgy at Panagia Soumela in Trabzon on the 15th of August. ”
The Greek Foreign Ministry issued a statement on the incident, stating that “on the instructions of Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias, the Embassy in Ankara held an emergency protest to the Turkish Foreign Ministry regarding the abusive detention and arrest warrant issued for George Varythymiadis. “
