Turkey’s Foreign Minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, on Wednesday warned Greece against extending its territorial waters in the Aegean Sea, Ekathimerini has reported.
Ankara “will not accept a fait accompli that has kept Turkey trapped in its coastline,” the Turkish Minister stressed.
“We will not allow [Greece] to extend its territorial waters in the Aegean by a single mile more than 6 miles.”
Ankara has said that if Athens extends its territorial waters to 12 miles in the Aegean it would be a casus belli, or cause for war.
Cavusoglu also accused Greece of targeting Ankara with “fake news” and of being “dishonest” and “insincere” over its difference with Turkey in the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean.
“The Greeks know what it means to face Turkey. We want dialogue, but Greece needs to be sincere,” he said.
Greece Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, said in September that Greece would start talks with Turkey to resolve conflicting claims over maritime boundaries in the Eastern Mediterranean once Turkish “provocations” ceased.
Greece’s Foreign Minister, Nikos Dendias, also responded to Cavusoglu’s latest comments and said: “I notice that Turkey is frustrated, the latest statement by the United Nations and the State Department on the Turkey-Libya “memorandum” and its validity, has created intense nervousness.”
Source: Ekathimerini.
