A former lawmaker from the People's Democratic Party [HDP] has requested asylum in Greece after fleeing Turkey in violation of conditional prison release terms, a police source said Friday.
Leyla Birlik, 44, submitted the request after illegally crossing the border between the two countries on Wednesday, local police told AFP.
The case could put fresh strain on Greece's often fraught relations with Turkey.
Athens and Ankara have lately clashed over Turkish demands that Greece extradite eight FETO-linked soldiers wanted over the July 2016 attempted coup aimed at unseating President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Birlik is a former MP from the HDP representing Şınak province where borders Iraq and Syria.
Ankara considers the HDP to have links to the outlawed PKK, designated as a terror group by Turkey and its Western allies, including the United States and the European Union.
Birlik's parliamentary immunity was lifted in May 2016, on accusations of making "terror" propaganda," according to CNN-Turk television.
On November 4, 2016, she was arrested, alongside 13 other HDP MPs on charges of "membership in PKK, making terror propaganda and engaged in activities on behalf of the group," CNN-Turk said.
She was released under judicial control in January 2017, but was placed under an overseas travel ban and had to report to authorities at regular intervals.
A year later, a Şırnak court sentenced Birlik to a year and nine months in prison for "insulting" Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, based on a press statement she had made in 2015.
An increasing number of Turkish citizens have been crossing illegally to Greece — Turkey's historic rival — since the July 2016 failed coup in Turkey. Especially, FETO-linked coup plotters [involved in the July 15 coup attempt in 2016] and the PKK terror sympathizers [charged with committing terror-related crimes] flee to Greece not to be sentenced by the court to prison term.
Greek asylum authorities say 1,839 fugitives have requested asylum in Greece so far this year — more than the 1,827 Turkish citizens who requested asylum for all of 2017.
The asylum applicants included eight FETO-linked soldiers who fled to northern Greece in a military helicopter the day after the bloody July 15 coup bid. Ankara is angrily demanding their extradition, alleging that they were involved in the plot, which was orchestrated by U.S. based FETO ringleader Fetullah Gülen.
But Greece's Supreme Court has refused to send them back to Turkey.
