The Council of Europe calls for immediate release of Greek soldiers in Turkish prison

Greek representatives forward letter requesting their immediate release

The Greek representatives at the EU Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe circulated a letter calling for the immediate release of the two Greek servicemen being held in a Turkish prison in Adrianople. The letter, signed by 13 members (Ioanneta Kavvadia, Anastasia Christodoulopoulou, Athanasia Anagnostopoulou, Georgios Psychogios, Nina Kasimatis, Dora Bakoyannis, Vangelis Meimarakis, Costas Tzavaras, Miltiadis Varvitsiotis, Vangelis Venizelos, Liana Kanellis, Dimitris Kammenos and George Mavrotas) demanded that the European bodies pressure Turkey to free the two Greek soldiers.

“The continued detention of the two Greek soldiers-Angelos Mitretoudis and Dimitris Kouklatzis- in a Turkish prison, apart from its obvious humanitarian dimension, also has important aspects related to human rights and guarantees of the rule of law.
For this reason, and considering that this is an issue that needs to take on a European and international dimension, we have, as a Greek delegation, taken the initiative to forward a written declaration to Members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe with a view to collecting as much support as possible from the full range of the political groups represented here”, the head of the Greek delegation, SYRIZA MP Annetta Kavvadia said.