In a recent TV interview, commenting on the EU-Turkey Summit in Varna, Turkish President Erdogan referred to the case of the two Greek Army officers who, since March 2, are detained in a prison in Edirne.
More specifically, Tayyip Erdogan said: “They asked us to return the two Greek soldiers and we told them that there are 8 soldiers who tried to do a coup. First of all you have to hand over those (eight), if you give us them then we can put the two on the table of talks” and he added "in order for us to remove the issue of the illegal border crossing by the two Greek soldiers and to bring the matter, return the 8 Turkish soldiers.”
Commenting on Erdogan's attempt to make a "bargaining"- a kind of anatolian bazaar- with the fate of the two Greek soldiers, the Press Office of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece stated the following:
"The unacceptable proposals of Erdogan about an exchange of the two Greek soldiers with the 8 Turkish officers, show both the machinations of Turkey within the framework of the escalation of her provocativeness, as well as the tolerance of international imperialist organisations towards Turkey, either with the 'Pontius Pilate' stance of NATO, or with the, without any effect, verbal condemnations of the EU".