Turkey's president to visit Greece this year

By Furkan Naci Top

ATHENS

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will visit Athens before the end of this year, Greece’s foreign minister said Thursday.

Speaking at a news conference in Athens, Nikos Kotzias said Erdogan's visit would be at the end of next month or the beginning of December.

Kotzias also said he agreed with his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu that they should meet twice a year, with the next such meeting taking place on the Greek island of Rhodes next May.

On FETO-linked former Turkish soldiers in Greece who fled Turkey after last year's defeated coup, which left 250 people martyred and more than 2,100 injured, Kotzias said there is no reason to hide the putschists, as Greece has also faced coups and threats of coups.

He stressed, however, that Greece is a constitutional state of law where judges decide on such issues.

Greek courts earlier this April refused to extradite eight ex-soldiers accused of being involved in the defeated coup, which was masterminded by FETO and its leader, U.S.-based Fetullah Gulen.