Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is seeking Turkish coup-instigators far and wide, including in Larissa, Thessaly. A person of particular interest to the Turkish leader is Brigadier Numan Yendigildiz, the Turkish administrative head of the South-Eastern Europe Brigade (SEEBRIG) – the multinational peace force for South-Eastern Europe – that is located at Tyrnavos in Larissa and has been under Turkish administration since June 2011.
Yendigildiz mysteriously disappeared from his post on July 27, shortly after the failed Turkish coup on July 15. His tenure was set to expire in another year, ending on June 2017. He did not return to Turkey as the Turkish government had asked, choosing instead to leave.
It should be noted that former Turkish administrative chief Hakan Eser, who had served at SEEBRIG from 2013 until 2015, had been arrested in Turkey shortly after July 15 as one of the military instigators that had masterminded the coup. He was among the first line of arrests of military officials that Erdogan had charged for treason.
The Turkish media is abuzz concerning the matter with speculation mounting over Yendigildiz’s ties with the faction of former imam Fethullah Gulen, believed by Turkey’s leadership to have masterminded the coup from New York where he is in exile. With the disappearance of Yendigildiz, the Turkish media has put the number of known military officials who fled to Greece following the coup attempt to ten (including the eight military officials who arrived in a Turkish helicopter in the wake of the coup).
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