In a speech in Ankara on Thursday, Turkey’s president Recep Tayip Erdogan openly questioned the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne dubbing it a “defeat” for his country and its interests.
“We gave away islands to Greece that we could reach with a shout. Is this victory? Some tried to trick us into believing that Lausanne was a victory,” he said.
“Those who sat at that table did not do right by that treaty. Now, we suffer its setbacks.”
As the Treaty forged the modern borders between Turkey and Greece helping the nations to establish peace, President Erdogan’s recent comments have sparked anger to the later.
“Efforts to cast doubt on international treaties lead to dangerous paths,” Greek Defence Minister Panos Kammenos warned Turkey reminding of the Imia islet dispute back in 1996 that nearly brought the two countries at the verge of declaring war.
Greece’s Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras also stressed that “questioning the treaty was dangerous to relations between the two countries and to the broader region.”
Meanwhile, CHP leader (Turkey’s main opposition party) Kemal Kilicdaroglu said Lausanne was “Turkey’s deed” negotiated by Ottoman leaders who wished to reverse the tough conditions of a previous treaty and questioned why Mr Erdogan had raised this issue while there was “unemployment, corruption and people chasing after their lives” across Turkey.
Erdogan’s provocations did not end there, however. In his Saturday address to the opening session of the Turkish parliament the authoritarian figure also accused the EU of “not keeping the promises it has made to Turkey.”
“There is no time to beat around the bush or engage in diplomatic acrobatics,” he noted adding that the EU has been keeping Turkey’s 80 million or so citizens of “waiting at the door for 53 years for membership.
While EU leaders agreed on fast-track visa conditions, and possible new impetus for EU membership talks back in March alongside billions of financial aid to Ankara in order for Turkey to help curb the mass refugee migration into Europe, Turkey has yet to redefine its definition of terrorism.
In addition, Erdogan dismissed criticism over plans for Turkey to prolong the state of emergency, saying no one should determine a “calendar or roadmap” for Turkey in any way.