Aftermath of failed coup in Turkey

Sir, – It is an act of bravery to attempt a coup against a leader who has subverted his country’s constitution, cowed its army, fomented trouble beyond its borders, and persecuted a significant national minority. Unless successful, it is also an act which can cost the lives of those who participate in it.

That is why Ireland must use its influence at European level to rebuff any attempt by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey to browbeat Greece into returning those soldiers who fled to it by helicopter and sought political asylum following the collapse of last weekend’s coup against him.

He and his prime minister have already suggested that the death penalty should be reinstated for potential use against those who were involved in the coup, which would be a flagrant breach of the European Convention on Human Rights. Returning the men to Turkey in those circumstances would also breach both the principle of non-refoulement (the forcible return of refugees or asylum seekers to a country where they are liable to be subjected to persecution), the cornerstone of refugee law, and key provisions of the European Union’s accumulated law and legal decisions in the area of international protection.

It may be expected that, in an effort to force the soldiers’ return, Turkey will threaten to renege on the agreement reached last March with the EU to take back irregular migrants who have arrived in Greece from its territory. Similar veiled threats are likely to have accompanied demands from Mr Erdogan for the prosecution of a German comedian for lampooning him on television earlier this year.

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Should such a threat be made on this occasion, the EU must show some spine and reject it. The soldiers’ status is a matter of international refugee law, not of negotiation. Their lives should not be subject to the whims of an individual whose behaviour has more in common with an oriental despot than a true successor of Kemal Atatürk. – Yours, etc,

ANTHONY MOORE,

Dublin 7.