Eight members of the Turkish army, who fled to Greece in a helicopter after a military coup against the government failed, were brought before a prosecutor in Alexandroupolis, a northern Greek city, on Sunday.
Turkish military officials are accused of crossing into Greece illegally and jeopardizing the friendship between the two countries.
The officials reportedly landed in Alexandroupoli by a Turkish army helicopter and sought political asylum after being detained by Greek police on Saturday.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu tweeted out that the government demanded that Greece immediately turn the eight rebel soldiers over to Turkey.
A group of soldiers attempted a military coup that started around 10 p.m. on Friday, when military tanks rolled onto the streets of Ankara and İstanbul and soldiers blocked the Bosphorus Bridge and the Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge. The military’s claim of a takeover was read on state broadcaster TRT. The anchor said the military imposed martial law and declared a curfew until further notice.
However, the coup attempt lost momentum after President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan returned from vacation at the seaside resort of Marmaris.
At least 161 people, including soldiers and police, were killed and 1,440 others were injured, while 2,839 soldiers were detained so far, according to Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım’s statement on Saturday.