In yet another provocative move, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that “the sovereignty of the Aegean islands will come into question if Greece does not stop violating international treaties”, during a meeting with North Macedonia Foreign Minister Bujar Osmani.
According to Turkish state-run Anadolu news agency the Turkish Foreign Minister was referring to its demands to see Greek army forces be removed from the Aegean islands. This comes following several statements and even national campaigns by the Turkish government where the Aegean islands are incorporated “back into” Turkey.
In response, the Greek government sent two letters to the United Nations Secretary General, the Athens Macedonia News Agency reported.
In the letters Athens rejects the entirety of Ankara’s arguments about the status of the Greek islands in the Aegean stating that it refutes those demands “as legally unsustainable, having clearly revisionist motives, and further fueling the instability Turkey creates with its actions”.
Meanwhile, during the annual GLOBSEC security conference held in Bratislava, Slovakia, Greece’s Defence Minister Nikos Panagiotopoulos expressed Greece’s frustration in dealing with Turkey, “a supposed NATO ally”.
Greece warned Turkey that it is reaching the limits of restraint and patience following a period of intense Turkish provocations, including overflights and demands to demilitarize Greek islands.
“We will do whatever it takes in order to defend and protect our full sovereign rights. We are getting dangerously close to our limits. Our limits of restraint and patience,” Panagiotopoulos said, calling the situation not only unacceptable but completely absurd.
“We feel strange having an ally that imposed a threat of war against us should we elect to exercise one of our legal rights under international law to extend our territorial waters beyond six miles. A threat of war from one ally against the other? I do not want to have allies like that (…) Not just incursions in our airspace, but overflights over inhabited areas. Sometimes overflights are taking place overnight. I wonder for what reason.”
“It also feels peculiar to have an ally that calls for the demilitarisation of our islands, arguing what? That if they are not demilitarised they are up for grabs? From whom? Are we going to lose them to someone else?” Panagiotopoulos wondered.
Watch the video here:
Μήνυμα ΥΠΕΘΑ Νίκου Παναγιωτόπουλου προς την Τουρκία: Φτάνουμε και εμείς επικίνδυνα στα όριά μας. pic.twitter.com/30jpKotQ1f
— Ομάδα Αλήθειας (@omadaalithias) June 6, 2022
