A second camp that is harboring terrorists was opened in Greece next to the existing notorious Lavrion camp, sources said amid increasing tensions between Ankara and Athens.
A Turkish official told Daily Sabah that although Athens rejected claims that Lavrion has become a breeding ground for terrorists, Ankara has discovered another camp similar to Lavrion had been opened. “We are in a very fragile process,” the official said regarding bilateral ties.
Greece has long been accused of being a favorite hideout for terrorists from the DHKP-C and PKK. Those fleeing Türkiye have taken shelter in refugee camps in Lavrion near Athens under the guise of being asylum-seekers, especially in the 1980s. Despite the closure of Lavrion in 2013 amid pressure from Türkiye, Greece continues to be the primary destination for DHKP-C terrorists.
Footage from the camp shows that it has turned into a base for PKK terrorists.
The camp seen resembles a terrorist base, with terrorist symbols and pictures of its imprisoned ringleader Abdullah Öcalan adorning its walls.
Furthermore, a diplomatic official had told Daily Sabah previously that “there is everything ranging from the DHKP-C, the PKK and FETÖ (Gülenist Terror Group) and the location of all of them is known.”
The aim is that these groups could be used one day against Türkiye, the official said. “An EU member country in the 21st century is openly feeding terrorists. The PKK is a terrorist group and designated as such by both the EU and the U.S,” explained the official.
“Athens is not a transit country for terrorists anymore, but the direct target country.”
Athens has also rejected Ankara’s extradition requests for terrorists from groups advocating armed insurgency against the state and had been involved in armed attacks against Turkish security forces and political parties, in addition to other targets.
Rejected extradition requests include members of the outlawed terrorist group The Revolutionary Left (Dev-Sol), members of the DHKP-C, the Turkish (or Kurdish) Hezbollah, the illegal Marxist-Leninist Communist Party (MLKP), the THKP-C, the PKK, the illegal Communist Party of Türkiye/Marxist-Leninist (TKP-ML) and from other groups.
Most recently, Turkish police detained a PKK terrorist who received training at the notorious camp in Greece and had been planning to carry out armed and bomb attacks in large cities, Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu had announced.
The terrorist, identified as Hüsamettin Tanrıkulu, code-named “Delil,” was detained in a joint counterterrorism operation by Istanbul and Diyarbakır police.
He had entered Türkiye through illegal means after receiving sabotage training at the Lavrion camp in Greece.
Athens permitting the existence of another camp harboring terrorists within its borders comes as relations between Türkiye and Greece hit a new low in recent months.
Türkiye and Greece are at odds over a number of issues, including competing claims over jurisdiction in the Eastern Mediterranean, overlapping claims over their continental shelves, maritime boundaries, air space, energy, the ethnically split island of Cyprus, the status of the islands in the Aegean Sea and migrants.
Ankara accuses Athens of illegally militarizing Greek islands in the East Aegean and questions Greece's sovereignty over them. There is also a dispute over the exploitation of mineral resources in the Aegean.
Among the most recent developments that flared tensions was the harassment by two Greek coast guard boats of a cargo ship in international waters, continued pushbacks by Greek elements recorded by Turkish unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) as well as the harassment of Turkish fighter jets under a NATO mission by Greece’s Russian-made S-300s.
It was reported recently that Turkish jets on a reconnaissance mission, flying in international airspace, had been harassed by the Greek defense system stationed on Crete. Athens rejects the claims.
Türkiye is planning to submit to NATO and its allies the radar logs showing how a Greek S-300 air defense system locked on to Turkish F-16 jets during a mission in international airspace, sources said last week. Türkiye has also lodged a protest and demanded an explanation and investigation from Greece into an incident that was "totally in violation of international laws," according to Turkish diplomatic sources.
Meanwhile, the Greek government wrote letters to NATO, the European Union and the United Nations, asking them to formally condemn what they claim is "increasingly aggressive talk" by Turkish officials in response to the continued Greek violations, and suggesting that tensions could escalate into open conflict.
