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Turkey releases grieving father to Greece in post-disaster diplomacy

Turkey-Greece ties are continuing to mend with a diplomatic gestures and mutual kindnesses in the wake of their recent disasters.

SAKIS MITROLIDIS/AFP via Getty Images
A photo taken on March 9, 2023, shows flowers left at the site of a train accident that killed 57 on Feb. 28 in Greece's worst rail disaster, near the central city of Larissa. — SAKIS MITROLIDIS/AFP via Getty Images

IZMIR, Turkey — Aegean frenemies Turkey and Greece continue their post-disaster de-escalation of tensions with a diplomatic gesture from Ankara by allowing the transfer of a Greek national from a Turkish prison to a Greek one. 

Dimitris Nalbantis is the father of the conductor, 28-year-old Nikos Nalbantis, who died when the passenger train he conducted crashed into a freight train south of the Tempe Valley in northern Greece on Feb. 28. Following the accident, Greek authorities have asked Turkey to temporarily release him so he can attend his son's funeral. 

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