The suspect, identified as Husamettin Tanrikulu with the codename "Delil", had received training at Greece’s Lavrion Camp and was preparing armed and bomb attacks in metropolitan cities on the instructions of the PKK/KCK terror group, the Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said on Sunday.

Soylu said on Twitter that the suspect was caught by the Istanbul and Diyarbakir police.

Turkish authorities accuse Greece of harbouring PKK and FETO terrorist organisations and giving space to conduct anti-Türkiye operations from their territories.

Terrorist presence in Greece

Türkiye's Defence Minister Hulusi Akar, earlier in June, referred to the PKK and FETO presence in the refugee camp of Lavrion (Laurium) near Athens, which was revealed as a propaganda and training base for the terrorists in footage from a private Greek broadcaster.

While Ankara is in an intense battle with terrorism, it goes against the nature of the NATO alliance that Greece "provides a place for the PKK and FETO," said Akar.

A Turkish Foreign Ministry official blasted Greek authorities earlier in August for building their governance structure on anti-Türkiye rhetoric.

"Athens is in a toxic, safe-haven state with the presence of terrorists from the DHKP-C, PKK and FETO. All of their locations are known," the official said, in response to a question on the refugee camp of Lavrion (Laurium) near the Greek capital.

In its more than 35-year terror campaign against Türkiye, the PKK — listed as a terrorist organisation by Türkiye, the US, and the EU — has been responsible for the deaths of over 40,000 people, including women, children and infants.

The Fetullah Terrorist Organisation (FETO) and its US-based leader Fetullah Gulen orchestrated the defeated coup of July 15, 2016, which left 251 people dead and 2,734 injured.

Source: agencies