Tsipras to meet Erdogan in Brussels on Thursday
Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras will meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Brussels on Thursday on the sidelines of the NATO summit and is expected, among other matters, to raise the issue of the two Greek soldiers who have been imprisoned in Turkey without charge since early March.
The meeting is scheduled to begin at 2.30 p.m. (3.30 p.m. Greek time).
In the effort to get NATO to apply pressure on Ankara for the pair’s release, government spokesman Dimitris Tzanakopoulos said on Tuesday that Tsipras will discuss the issue at all his meetings at the summit and will refer to it in his public statements.
However, Athens doesn’t expect any reference to the soldiers in the final summit conclusions.
The pair were arrested after crossing the Turkish border during a routine patrol in bad weather and the matter has been a source of acute domestic pressure on the government.
Speaking at the general assembly of the Federation of Industries of Northern Greece (SBBE) in Thessaloniki on Monday, Tsipras brought up the subject of the two servicemen, describing it as an “unjustified detention without charges.”
