Turkish helicopter lands in Greece, 8 crew members nabbed

A Turkish military helicopter carrying eight men has landed in northeastern Greece, with its crew seeking political asylum after a putsch attempt in Turkey, Greek officials say.

The Black Hawk helicopter landed in an airport in Alexandroupoli, located in the region of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace, at midday on Saturday, after sending a distress call to authorities at the airport, Greece’s Defense Ministry said in a statement.

According to the Greek ERT TV, the passengers, seven of them in military uniforms, are believed to be among those who orchestrated the attempted coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey on Friday night.

The seven men had reportedly removed their badges and insignia from the uniforms to make it impossible to know their rank, but Athens News Agency reported that the asylum seekers comprised majors, captains and sergeant majors, and a civilian.

All the crew, however, were detained by Greek security police upon their landing on charges of illegal entry into the country. According to the Greek government spokeswoman, Olga Gerovassili, “as far as the asylum seekers are concerned, we are going to proceed according to the international law.”

She added that Athens was in “constant” contact with Turkish authorities and would consider the fact that the detained crew “took part in a coup against the Turkish constitution.”

“The helicopter is scheduled to be sent back immediately to Turkey,” AFP quoted an unnamed official in the Greek National Defense General Staff as saying.

Reports say Greece is to examine political asylum requests of the crew.

Earlier in the day, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras expressed his “support for the democratically elected” Turkish government.

Turkey’s reaction

Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Ankara had requested Athens to return the eight people.

“We have requested Greece to extradite the eight traitors as soon possible,” Cavusoglu was quoted as telling HaberTurk television.

The Turkish foreign minister later said in a message posted on Twitter that the eight people will be repatriated to Turkey as soon as possible.

What happened?

It all began when a faction of the Turkish military declared last night that it had fully seized control of the country and that President Erdogan and Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım were no more in charge.

A group calling itself the “Council for Peace in the Homeland” declared martial law and a curfew in the statement.

Soldiers and tanks took to the streets late on Friday and multiple explosions rang out throughout the night in Ankara and Istanbul, the two biggest cities of the strategic NATO member country.

Gunfire could be heard across the capital as military warplanes and helicopters were flying low over the city.

Since the early hours of Saturday, however, with Erdogan’s call on the nation to violate the curfew imposed by the coup attempters by filling in the streets, the coup forces, group by group, surrendered themselves or were arrested by security forces loyal to Erdogan.

At least 161 people including civilians were killed and over 1,400 others sustained injuries during the coup attempt. The government says 104 coup plotters have been killed and about 100 army members have been detained at Diyarbakir military base.

Over 2,800 armed forces suspected of involvement in the coup are already under arrest and five members of Turkey's highest judiciary board, the HSYK, along with more than 2,700 judges have also been removed from duty.

In his Saturday remarks in Ankara, Yıldırım accused the US-based cleric Fetullah Gulen of being responsible for the coup attempt. Gulen, however, has denied any involvement and strongly condemned it in a statement on Saturday.

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