Norway grants asylum to Turkish coup officers | World | The Times & The Sunday Times
Five Turkish military officers have been granted asylum in Norway, the first to be given refugee status since the failed military coup last July. Four of the officers had been posted at a Nato educational base in Norway while the fifth was a military attaché. After the attempted coup they were suspended and recalled to Turkey but instead claimed asylum.
About 260 Turkish Nato officers have been suspended in President Erdogan’s sweeping purge of the armed forces since the failed revolt. All of those who have returned to Turkey as ordered have been arrested on arrival and are being detained in prison. Others have remained and are applying for asylum. Germany and Belgium have also received asylum applications from sacked Turkish officers.
The Norwegian decision has infuriated the Turkish government. Numan Kurtulmus, the Turkish deputy prime minister, said: “It’s not possible to accept this. This is wrong. This means protecting and defending this gang known as Feto [the Gulenist movement, the group accused of organising the coup attempt].”
A 2,700-page indictment filed by the Turkish state against the alleged coup plotters claims that 8,651 military personnel, or 1.5 per cent of the armed forces, were involved. Critics say that dismissals and arrests in the post-coup crackdown have gone way beyond those suspected of Gulenist links to ensnare all of Mr Erdogan’s opponents, from secular nationalists to leftwing Kurds. More than half of Turkish generals and admirals have been dismissed, and in many cases arrested, since July. The first trials of troops accused of involvement in the coup began last month.
A total of 89 Turkish citizens applied for asylum in Norway last year, all but 13 of them after the coup attempt..........