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200 Turks with Diplomatic Passport Granted Germany Asylum | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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Some 200 Turkish holders of diplomatic passports have been granted asylum in Germany since 2016. (AFP)


The German Interior Ministry announced that some 200 Turkish nationals, who hold diplomatic passports, have been granted the right to asylum in Germany since last year’s failed coup in Turkey.

Some 249 holders of diplomatic passports had applied for asylum in Germany and the requests of 196 have been approved.

The Ministry did not disclose the numbers of military personnel who have been given asylum.

According to the Ministry’s data, the number of asylum seekers from Turkey is on the rise.

A total of 962 people had applied for asylum in August, 620 in July and 433 in June.

Germany’s The Linke leftist party criticized the number of approvals, saying that it was not reasonable that 196 Turkish diplomats would be granted asylum in Germany as ties between the two countries carry on as usual.

Earlier in September, the Turkish Foreign Ministry had issued an advisory to its citizens against traveling to Germany.

It asked them to exercise caution in the country over increased discrimination in the European country.

Tensions between the two sides had emerged in the build up to a referendum that granted Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan greater powers in what some observers said pushed the country towards totalitarian rule.