Ankara summons Greek diplomat over border killing

ANKARA

Turkey has summoned the Chargé d’Affairs of the Greece Embassy in Ankara after a Turkish citizen was killed by individuals dressed in plain clothes in a cross-border fire near Meriç River.

Sources from the Turkish Foreign Ministry informed that Greek diplomat Eleni Vakali was summoned to the ministry on Aug. 1.

Ankara has demanded information about the killing of Turkish citizen Mehmet Durgun and the investigation of the incident, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported.

Turkey also asked Greece to take preventive measures to avoid the repetition of such incidents.

Durgun was shot in the face on July 31 as he was promenading on the banks of Meriç River, which constitutes a natural border between Turkey and Greece, while his friend, Süleyman Şener, rushed to his village, Adasarhanlı, in the northwestern province of Edirne to inform officials.

Durgun’s body was transferred to the morgue at Meriç State Hospital.

Meriç Governor İlyas Öztürk also went to the border villages to obtain more information about the killing.

Turkey and Greece, two NATO member states, were at loggerheads over territory and undersea energy resources last year after Ankara sent several drillships to explore energy resources in the eastern Mediterranean.