SYRIZA MP questions minister over Kurdish asylum seeker’s ‘kidnap’
SYRIZA MP Dimitris Tsoukalas asked the government on Tuesday to explain what it knows about the alleged abduction of a Turkish asylum seeker in Athens and his handover to Turkish authorities.
It was alleged over the weekend by human rights activists that Bulut Yayla was bundled into a car in the central Athens neighborhood of Exarchia on Thursday night and that the next time his whereabouts were known, he was being held by authorities in Istanbul.
Tsoukalas suggested that Greek authorities may have been involved. “On Friday, when I was given the license plate of the car involved, I called the chiefs of the police and the anti-terrorism squad and they told me that it is used by police vehicles,” he said.
The SYRIZA MP asked Dendias to reveal what he knows about the incident, whether Greek officers were involved and how “the abductors were able to make it to the Greek-Turkish border without being challenged.” The Greek Police issued a statement on Monday saying the force had launched a preliminary investigation into the alleged kidnapping but that it had no record of Yayla’s presence in Greece.
Yayla, 24, is a Kurd and reportedly a member of the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C), which has claimed responsibility for bomb attacks on the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) headquarters and the Justice Ministry earlier this year. It was also linked to a blast at the US Embassy in Ankara in February.
