Turkiye has been asked to allow Greek prisoner to attend funeral of Tempi crash victim
The family of a Greek inmate in Turkiye has asked the Greek consulate in Edirne to intervene so that he will be granted leave on humanitarian grounds, to attend the funeral of a close relative killed in the Tempi train collision, diplomatic sources revealed on Friday.
"Following instructions from Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias, the Greek Consul immediately contacted the relevant Turkish prosecuting authority and asked for emergency permission to visit the Greek citizen, without observing the weekly time limit rules. The permission requested was granted as an exception and the meeting is expected to take place this morning," the sources said.
At the same time, they added, a meeting was requested with the head of the general prosecutors' office in Tekirdag in order to relay the Greek citizen's request.
In addition, acting on the instructions of the foreign minister, the Greek Embassy in Ankara immediately sent a notification to the Turkish foreign ministry that notes the humanitarian nature of the request and phone calls have been made by the Greek embassy to the departments of bilateral relations and consular affairs of the Turkish foreign ministry.
A meeting on this issue is scheduled to take place on Friday afternoon between the Greek ambassador in Ankara and the general secretary of the Turkish foreign ministry.
The sources pointed out, however, that it remains at the sole discretion of Turkish authorities whether or not to grant a request for special furlough for humanitarian reasons.
AMNA