Five Turkish citizens, affiliated with the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ), including a family of three were arrested for illegally entering Greece last week.
A Greek Ministry of Citizen Protection official said the five crossed the Evros River and arrived in Orestiada in northern Greece on Thursday, where Greek authorities detained them for illegal entry.
According to the weekly Thess News newspaper, the five fled Turkey after the July 15 failed coup because of their "Gülenist and Kemalist associations".
The group of five plans to seek asylum in Greece, the paper added.
All five are being held at the Feres police station in northern Greece and are scheduled to appear before a prosecutor in the following days, Thess News reports. They are also expected to submit a formal application requesting political asylum, according to the newspaper.
Since the July 15 coup attempt left more than 240 martyred and almost 2,000 injured, at least 23 Turkish citizens have fled their country and requested asylum in Greece, arriving either at Eastern Aegean islands or at the Northern parts of the Greek mainland.
After the July 15 coup attempt, eight soldiers, including two commanders, four captains and two sergeants, had escaped to Greece on a Sikorsky helicopter and landed in Alexandroupolis (Dedeağaç). Ankara has formally requested from Greece the extradition of alleged FETÖ members behind the coup attempt. A Greek court has sentenced the eight men to a suspended two-month jail sentence for illegal entry to Greece and are currently in police custody in Athens.
After the incident, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras told President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan that the FETÖ coup plotters are not welcome in Greece. Tsipras was quoted by Greek media: "It [the July 15 coup attempt] was a difficult experience for Turkey. Our stance on this is clear: The Greek government and Greek people always stand by a government that has come to power through elections."
