A 43-year-old Turkish man has died of heart attack while on a charity trip for Turkish asylum claimants in Greece. Hasan Degirmenci suffered a heart attack at the house of a Turkish [refugee] family in Athens and was subsequently taken to a nearby hospital where he later died.
Τhis situation (Persecutions by the Turkish government) made us leave our homeland. Why would people throw their children in to the fire, throw their children into the water? I want people to think of the reason behind, why all this is happening.
We heard about mothers being imprisoned right after birth in Turkey. And it’s just really a horrible shame; and that they’re still being tracked by the Turkish government at this point is just really frightening. Turkey had achieved democracy, but now it’s under a single person’s rule–which is what we call a dictatorship.
They were happy when Greek police caught them. “They treated us very well,” Hakan says. “Zehra told us she felt safer spending [several nights] in jail than [she did] in Turkey. She said: ‘The Greek police are keeping us safe from the Turks.'”
Now, at least 1,000 Turkish citizens are seeking refuge in Greece, according to the refugee support nonprofit SolidarityNOW. It’s hard to pin down an exact number because not many have applied for asylum, says Antonis Spathis, a human rights lawyer in Thessaloniki. The Greek Asylum Service told NPR that 186 Turkish citizens applied for asylum in 2016 and noted there has been a “significant” increase in 2017.
Hundred of members of Turkey’s Gulenist network have sought refuge in neighbouring Greece. Turkey accuses the network of being behind the failed coup in July 2016. And in recent months, the number of lives in exile appears to be increased as the BBC’s Cagil Kasapoglu reports from Thessaloniki.
Dominika Spyratou of the Greek NGO SolidarityNow, which provides assistance to refugees, says that more than 1,000 Turkish citizens came to Greece seeking asylum after the July 2016 failed coup, while almost 300 Turkish families are now in Thessaloniki.
Victims of Erdogan regime are increasing everyday as there has not been an effective mechanism preventing him. A Turkish Family with three children drowned in Aegean Sea while escaping from Erdogan’ autocratic regime as they had last their hope to survive in Turkey.