© Reuters. FILE PHOTO – Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias arrives for a two-day meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Berlin, Germany May 14, 2022. REUTERS/Michele Tantussi
ATHENS (Reuters) – Greece wants constructive dialogue with Turkey based on international law but neighboring Aegean must stop escalating its unprecedented provocations, Greece’s foreign minister said on Sunday.
The two nations – NATO allies but historic enemies – have been at odds for decades over a range of issues, including where the continental shelf begins and ends. their own, the incident flooded the Aegean Sea and divided Cyprus.
Nikos Dendias told Proto Thema newspaper in an interview: “Turkey has the choice whether to go to such a dialogue or not, but the basic ingredient must be de-escalation.”
Last month, the European Union expressed concern over a statement by Turkish President Tayip Erdogan accusing Greece, an EU member, of occupying demilitarized islands in the Aegean and saying that Turkey was ready to ” do what is necessary” when the time comes.
Dendias said: “The person responsible for the de-escalation is the one causing the escalation, which is Turkey.
He blamed Ankara for increasing provocations with claims of false and legally baseless claims, “even personal insults”.
Mr. Dendias told the newspaper that Turkey had sharply increased its overflights and violations of Greek airspace, adding that its behavior appeared to be serving a “thematic narrative”. revisionism” that they always promote.
He said that Turkey’s declaration that Greece could not be an equal dialogue partner diplomatically, politically and militarily was a violation of the basic rule of foreign relations – the principle of equality between nations. nation.
“It is an insulting approach to rank different countries as equal or less,” says Dendias.
