Turkey slams Greece for acquitting militants

ANKARA

Turkey on May 15 criticized Greece for acquitting nine DHKP-C militants who were arrested in 2017.     

"The acquittal reveals why these terrorist elements are nested in Greece," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hami Aksoy said in a written statement.

The militants were arrested by Greek police over suspicion of attempting to assassinate Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.      

This decision by the Greek court clearly is interrupting the efforts to combat terrorism in Europe, Aksoy added.

Turkey is worried that Greece has become a safe haven for terrorist organizations, he concluded.     

The Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front, or DHKP-C - listed as a terrorist group by Turkey, the U.S., and the EU - is responsible for a number of terror attacks in Turkey, including a 2013 attack on the U.S. Embassy in Ankara which killed a Turkish security guard and the 1996 murder of businessman Özdemir Sabancı.