Turkey has suspended its migrant readmission deal with Greece, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said, days after Greece released from prison four Turkish soldiers who fled there after the 2016 attempted coup.
Çavuşoğlu was cited as saying the move was "unacceptable". On Monday, the four soldiers were released after an order extending their custody expired. A decision on their asylum applications is still pending.
"We have a refugee deal with the EU and we have a readmission agreement with Greece. We have suspended the deal with Greece," Çavuşoğlu said.
The readmission deal allows the return of "irregular migrants" to Turkey from Greece in exchange for Syrian refugees to be relocated within the EU.
In January 2017, Greece's Supreme Court ruled against extraditing the soldiers, who have sought political asylum, saying they feared for their lives in Turkey. After the decision, Ankara threatened to cancel Greece migration deal. "We are evaluating what we can do. There is a migration deal we signed, including a readmission deal with Greece, and we are evaluating what we can do, including the cancellation of the readmission deal with Greece," Çavuşoglu said on January 27, 2017.
