Bulgarian authorities have handed over some 72 Turkish nationals to their homeland since January 2016, the deputy head of Bulgaria's border police has said.

Some 194 Greek nationals have been turned in to Greece since the beginning of the year.

Police have refused to comment on the reports that seven nationals arrested and sent back to Turkey earlier this week had links with Muslim cleric Fethullah G?len's movement, designated as terrorist organization by Turkey.

They could not "justify their entry into Bulgaria" and were therefore "escorted to the border... 24 hours upon their detention," Focus News Agency quotes Svetoslav Manolov, the deputy head of border police, as saying.

Manolov makes clear the men were handed over to Turkey not due to their possible affiliation to G?len, but under a bilateral readmission agreement which has been in force for Turkish nationals since 2014.

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