Ankara lashes out at Juncker, EU over jailed Greek army officers

Straight on the heels of Jean-Claude Juncker’s call – and it was not the first – for Ankara to immediately release two Greek army officers that it has imprisoned for nearly two months, the Turkish foreign ministry lashed out at the European Commission president

“We reject this statement, which is far from being serious and lacks legal basis. Greek soldiers who violate Turkish law do not have any privileges before the independent judiciary,” Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Hami Aksoy said in a written statement, as reported by Hurriyet, after Juncker addressed a plenary session of the Greek Parliament, attended by President Prokopis Pavlopoulos.

The ministry accused the EU of double standards and of meddling in the affairs of the Turkish judiciary.

“We condemn this two-faced mentality, which does not hesitate to make remarks about the state of law when it comes to its interests, making statements that interfere with the ongoing judicial process,” the statement said.

“We see in Juncker’s speech at the Greek Parliament that he continues his habit of judging issues that concern our country under the umbrella of ‘unity of solidarity,” the ministry spokesman remarked in the statement.

“With these explanations, based on the Greek positions concerning the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean, the EU authorities lose more credibility day by day. We reject these explanations, which are far from serious and lack legal basis,” he noted.