2016 Coup Attempt in Turkey Stalled Ankara-Athens Thaw: Tsipras

Tsipras on Nov. 24 released a long-awaited memoir, “Ithaki,” 10 years after a traumatic management of the country's debt crisis and as he reportedly mulls a political comeback.

The book, an account of his four years in office from 2015 to 2019, also includes a chapter on Greece’s foreign affairs.

Tsipras maintained that a positive agenda dominated relations with Turkey before the attempted coup on July 15, 2016.

The ex-premier said that he visited Turkey three times in the seven months prior to the coup attempt.

“In my opinion, if the coup didn’t intervene, the 4th High-Level Cooperation Council meeting held in [the Turkish Aegean province of] İzmir in March 2016 could have been an important turning point in Turkish-Greek relations,” Tsipras said.

Recalling that he was on vacation when he was informed about the coup attempt, Tsipras emphasized, “I was one of the first world leaders to call Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and convey my support against the coup.”

On the hijacking of a Turkish military helicopter by eight FETÖ members to Greece’s northern port city of Alexandroupolis on July 16, 2016, he claimed that Greece was obliged by international law to give the fugitive FETÖ members asylum. 

Recounting his phone call with Erdoğan, during which the Turkish president requested their extradition, Tsipras said, “I told him coup plotters are not welcome in Greece, but the Greek judiciary will make the final decision on their case.”

The issue of the eight fugitives remained a constant source of tension in Turkish-Greek relations for at least two years, he added.