Greek Migration and Asylum Minister Thanos Plevris has requested a full briefing on the first instance rejection of an asylum application by Turkish activist Yannis Vasilis Yaylali, following intense media and political attention this week over the latter’s case.
According to reports, the initial rejection was due to allegations of war crimes, which Yaylali denies, and stated he is not being immediately deported as a full investigation has been requested.
Yaylali, who has lived in Greece since 2019, was a prominent activist and pacifist in the neighboring country who subsequently declared himself an ethnic Pontian Greek after researching his familial records, as he said. He was born in the Black Sea town of Bafra, which before the exchange of populations between Greece and Turkey in 1923 had a sizable Greek Pontian community.
He has also changed his name from Ibrahim to Giannis Vasilis once in Greece and prominently announced, over social media and news reports, his baptism into the Orthodox Christian faith. Yaylali, whose biography lists that he served as a volunteer conscript in a Turkish army combat unit active in the predominately Kurdish southeast of the country and witnessed atrocities against civilians and rebels alike, underlined that he’s been jailed in Turkey for his activism and political beliefs and is under investigation in another 13 criminal cases.
The media and political “commotion” in Athens this week generated an announcement by the relevant ministry on Thursday, without specifically naming Yaylali.
“…we clarify the following:
– The Asylum Service that judges the applications for international protection to a certain extent operates independently and issues the relevant decisions in accordance with the provisions of European legislation.
– An appeal against a rejection by the Asylum Service may be brought only by the asylum seeker within 30 days of its rendering.
– Until a second instance decision on the above application is adopted, the asylum seeker is not deported from the country.
– The Minister has the right to appeal only against the second instance (appellate) decision.”
