Several dozen Turkish soldiers assigned to NATO have sought asylum in Germany, a media report said Saturday, quoting officers who said they fear jail and possibly torture back home.

Around 43,000 people are under arrest in Turkey on charges or links to last year’s failed military coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

“About 40 Turkish troops, mostly of high rank and stationed in NATO bases, applied for asylum in Germany,” Der Spiegel magazine and the ARD television station said in a joint report.

One officer, who insisted he had no connection to the coup attempt or sympathy for those behind it, was quoted as saying: “If I return to Turkey I risk imprisonment, or perhaps torture.”

Source: AFP