Greece’s government has sent letters to NATO, the United Nations and the European Union calling on them to formally condemn increasingly provocative statements by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The letters were sent by Greece’s Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, EU foreign policy head Josep Borrell and UN chief Antonio Guterres.
In them, Dendias quoted Erdogan’s recent references to the Greek people as “vile,” and to Greek “occupation” of Aegean Sea islands that have been part of Greece for decades.
Erdogan also recently warned Greece it would pay a “heavy price” if it continues to harass Turkish fighter jets over the Aegean and hinted at military action.
“These public statements by the Turkish president speak for themselves; they are unprovoked, unacceptable and an insult against Greece and the Greek people,” Dendias wrote in the letters sent between September 5 – 6.
The Foreign Minister said this behaviour by Turkey should be censured by the three bodies.
“By not doing so in time or by underestimating the seriousness of the matter, we risk witnessing again a situation similar to that currently unfolding in some other part of our continent,” he wrote, in an allusion to the war in Ukraine. “This is something none of us would really wish to see.”
The letters come at a low point in relations between the two neighbours, who are separated by centuries-long enmity and contemporary disputes, including Aegean Sea boundaries and immigration.
Source: AP News and Ekathimerini.
