Greek Foreign Minister: Turkey a Danger to Peace and Stability in Eastern Mediterranean

Turkish
TAL COHEN/AFP/Getty Images
Chris Tomlinson

Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias warned that continued Turkish actions in the Eastern Mediterranean were threatening peace in the region.

Dendias made his comments during a press conference alongside Cypriot Foreign Minister Nikos Christodoulidis in Nicosia, Cyprus, saying that Turkey was “threatening peace, security and stability”.

“On the one hand, it is trying to create precedents and, on the other, trying to avoid measures being taken against it,” Dendias said on Friday, Greek newspaper I Kathimerini reports.

The meeting between the two foreign ministers has taken place in the days leading up to a scheduled meeting of European Union officials to discuss possible sanctions against Turkey. The near east country has provoked criticism by launching research vessels in areas Greece and Cyprus have claimed as part of their exclusive economic zones (EEZ).

More recently, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made statements in Turkish controlled Northern Cyprus advocating for a two-state solution for the island, rather than potential reunification.

Erdogan’s comments contradict a 1977 agreement that looked to create a unified federal government in Cyrpus with two separately governed zones in the north and south.

In October, the Turkish leader defended the deployment of the natural resource research vessel Oruc Reis in the Mediterranean. He said: “We will continue to give the response they deserve on the field, to Greece and the Greek Cypriot administration who have not kept their promises during talks within the EU and NATO platforms.”

In August, the Greek government called on the European Union to sanction Turkey, receiving support from French President Emmanuel Macron, who has also backed the idea of sanctions.

Macron has also had his own conflicts with President Erdogan following the death of teacher Samuel Paty, who was beheaded in the street by a Chechen refugee in revenge for showing cartoons of the Islamic prophet Mohammed to his class.

In reaction to the act of terror, Macron launched a campaign against political Islam and Islamist associations and groups. Erdogan declared Macron to be mentally unwell in response and later called for a boycott of French goods.

Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at @TomlinsonCJ or email at ctomlinson(at)breitbart.com

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