{"id":7063,"date":"2026-05-23T15:53:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T12:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/?p=7063"},"modified":"2026-05-23T15:53:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T12:53:00","slug":"ankaras-strong-reaction-to-yiotopoulos-the-fight-against-terrorism-is-undermined","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/?p=7063","title":{"rendered":"Ankara’s strong reaction to Yiotopoulos – The fight against terrorism is undermined"},"content":{"rendered":"

There was a sharp reaction from Turkish foreign ministry after the decision to release Alexandros Yiotopoulos<\/strong>, who was convicted in 2003 as a leading member of the terrorist organisation “17 November”<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

Ankara issued a statement calling the decision “an insult to the memory of the victims” and a blow to international efforts against terrorism. <\/p>\n

“We strongly condemn the release, on May 21, 2026, of the leader of the 17 November terrorist organization Alexandros Yiotopoulos,” the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement. <\/p>\n

In the same statement, the Turkish side described Yiotopoulos as the instigator of attacks targeting Turkish diplomats in Athens. <\/p>\n

The attacks on Turkish diplomats cited by Turkey <\/h2>\n

The Turkish Foreign Ministry notes that Alexander Yiotopoulos<\/strong> was sentenced to 17 life sentences<\/strong> and an additional 25 years in prison for a series of terrorist acts. <\/p>\n

According to Ankara’s statement, Yiotopoulos is believed to be responsible for the murder of Cetin Gyorgou<\/strong>, press attach\u00e9 at the Turkish embassy in Athens, on 7 October 1991. <\/p>\n

At the same time, reference is made to the attempted assassination of the then Turkish ambassador Deniz Bolukbashi<\/strong>, but also the 1994 assassination of embassy counsellor Khaluk Shipahioglu<\/strong> outside his home. <\/p>\n

Deniz Bolukbashi later became known for a book he had published on Greek-Turkish disputes in the Aegean<\/strong>, and was later elected as a member of parliament with the nationalist MHP<\/strong> party. <\/p>\n

“Unacceptable show of tolerance” says Turkish foreign ministry<\/h2>\n<\/h2>\n

In a particularly harsh tone, the Turkish foreign ministry claimed the release constituted an “unacceptable show of tolerance” towards “this wretched terrorist”. <\/p>\n

At the same time, it said the development was a “grave disrespect to the memory of our martyred diplomats and their families.” <\/p>\n

Ankara also urged the Greek authorities to avoid actions that could weaken the fight against terrorism and called for full respect of responsibilities towards those convicted of terrorist acts. <\/p>\n

82-year-old Yiotopoulos<\/strong> was released from prison on Thursday (21\/5), following a decision by a judicial council that accepted a request for conditional release due to age and health issues. <\/p>\n

First published by Deutsche Welle<\/p>\n

.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\n The Turkish Foreign Ministry reacted sharply after the decision to release Alexandros Yiotopoulos, who had …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7064,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7063\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}