Denmark applauded the recent multi-national prisoner exchange as a great diplomatic victory for Türkiye.
"First and foremost, it is a great Turkish diplomatic victory, and then it is really, really good for the 16 people who have been helped out of Belarus and Russia," Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen told the state-run broadcaster.
The foreign minister expressed satisfaction that the West was able to free more people than it sent to Russia.
“It is also good that the balance is in the right direction. In other words, 16 the right way and 10 the wrong way, you could say,” he told DR.
Türkiye's National Intelligence Organization (MIT) led a successful prisoner exchange involving seven countries in one of the most extensive swap operations in recent years.
The swap involved 26 prisoners from the US, Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Norway, Russia and Belarus. During the operation, 10 prisoners, including two children, were sent to Russia, 13 to Germany, and three to the US.
American journalist Evan Gerskovich and Russian dissident Vladimir Kara-Murza are among those who have been released from Russian prisons.
According to security sources, the process that resulted in the transfer of 26 prisoners began when the US, Russia, and Germany asked for assistance from Türkiye, a country that has had success in mediating previous such exchanges.
The exchange was to take place at Ankara Esenboga Airport, where, in the early hours of Thursday morning, the MIT took heightened security measures in preparation for the operation, which was conducted without disrupting the routine workflow at the facility.
The exchange began at 4.05 p.m. local time (1305GMT) with the landing of the first plane from Slovenia. The actual transfer of prisoners began with the subsequent arrival of planes from Poland, Norway, Russia, Germany, and the US.
The main priority throughout the operation was the security of the 26 people to be exchanged.
