The historic Greek factory, PITSOS, a leading manufacturer of household appliances and one of the largest industrial units in Greece, is set to close down and be transferred to Turkey by the end of the year.

The factory is owned by German company, Bosch-Siemens Hausgeraete GmbH, and gives work to 700 people.

According to a letter from the Panhellenic Federation of Metal Workers (POEM) to Greek Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, “the countdown for the closure of the factory has already begun with the company’s announcement that it will stop existing production in Renti on December 31st, 2020.”

The worker’s union went on to urge the political leadership to prevent the closure of the “profitable company” and said its closure and transfer to another country violates the investment agreement of the most recent purchase by Bosch in 2015.

PITSOS SA (Πίτσος) was founded in Athens in 1865 and began as a company manufacturing small household appliances and oil heaters. In 1959, it began production of fridges in a new factory and invested heavily on the production of a wide range of modern home appliances, including TV sets.

In 1977, Pitsos was bought by Bosch-Siemens Hausgeraete GmbH βυ. Recently, the company was rebranded to “BSH Home Appliances.”

BSH (Pitsos) now boasts a leading position in the Greek household appliances market with a market share of approximately 40 percent. Its revenue reached €308 million in 2005. Approximately one third of the total revenue comes from exports mainly to Europe and the Middle East.

Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on Wednesday accused Greece of failing to fulfill “promises” made during negotiations within the European Union and NATO, and said his country would continue to give Greece “the answer it deserves.”

Erdogan’s comments came days after Ankara redeployed its search vessel, Oruc Reis, for a new energy exploration mission in disputed waters in the eastern Mediterranean, reigniting tensions with Greece and Cyprus over sea boundaries and exploration rights.

READ MORE: Turkey issues new Navtex in Eastern Mediterranean for Oruc Reis vessel.

Those tensions had flared up over the summer, prompting a military buildup, bellicose rhetoric and fears of a confrontation between the two NATO members and historic regional rivals.

“Our Oruc Reis has returned to its duty in the Mediterranean,” Erdogan told legislators of his ruling party in a speech in parliament.

“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.”

He didn’t spell out what the promises were but Turkish officials have been accusing Greek officials of engaging in a series of “provocations,” despite efforts to revive the so-called exploratory talks between the neighbors that were aimed at resolving disputes and were last held in 2016.

READ MORE: Turkey, Greece agree to resume talks after four years.

Greece’s government said, meanwhile, that it wouldn’t take part in planned exploratory talks with Turkey as long as the survey mission was in progress.

“It is impossible to hold talks about a (maritime region) when a survey in that region is underway,” government spokesman, Stelios Petsas, told private Skai television.

During his speech, Erdogan also rebuffed international criticism over Turkey’s move to open the beachfront of Cyprus’ fenced-off suburb of Varosha in divided Cyprus’ breakaway Turkish Cypriot north.

“The fenced-off Varosha region belongs to the Turks of northern Cyprus. This should be known as such,” he said.

Varosha remained off-limits and in Turkish military control after its Greek Cypriot residents fled before advancing troops in 1974 when Turkey invaded and sliced the island along ethnic lines after a coup by supporters of union with Greece.

READ MORE: Occupied Cyprus to reopen beach abandoned in no-man’s land since 1974 conflict.

The leaders of Greece’s fascist Golden Dawn party were sentenced to prison on Wednesday for running a criminal gang linked with hate crimes.

Presiding judge, Maria Lepenioti, handed down 13-year jail terms to six former lawmakers, including Golden Dawn’s leader Nikos Mihaloliakos, a 62-year-old mathematician and Holocaust denier, at the Athens Criminal Appeals Court.

The court also handed a life sentence to Golden Dawn member Yiorgos Roupakias for the murder of Pavlos Fyssas, an anti-fascist rapper, and 10 years in jail for belonging to a criminal group.

Other former lawmakers were sentenced to five-seven years in prison for being members of a criminal group. The court will decide later this week if any of the sentences can be suspended.

READ MORE: Golden Dawn party members found guilty of running criminal organisation.

“Today’s sentencing of the neo-Nazi organisation demonstrates the resilience of our democracy and the rule of law,” Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, said in a tweet on Wednesday evening.

“This verdict marks the end of a traumatic period in Greece’s history. Together we move forward with this chapter closed.”

Human rights groups and immigrant associations have also praised the conviction of Golden Dawn’s leadership.

“Survivors of these crimes have a right to see justice done and this goes a long way to showing that the state will not tolerate such vicious attacks,” Eva Cosse at Human Rights Watch told The Associated Press.

“Racist and xenophobic violence is intended to send a hateful message, and it’s the prosecutor’s role to send an equally powerful counter-message, and for the court to apply an appropriate sentence that reflects the gravity of the crime.”

Golden Dawn, founded in the 1980s and once Greece’s third-largest political party, entered parliament for the first time in 2012 at the peak of an economic crisis on a fiercely anti-immigrant platform, tapping into public anger over painful austerity measures and what many saw as a corrupt and cozy political establishment.

Golden Dawn’s top figures were arrested in 2013, after the killing of Fyssas prompted huge protests across Greece and led to a government crackdown on the party.

Police found unlicensed weapons and Nazi flags in the homes of party members.

A total 68 had been on trial, including the entire Golden Dawn leadership, accused of four crimes.

Last week, when Golden Dawn was found guilty, thousands of anti-racist protesters celebrated the landmark verdict.

“Pavlos, you did it!” the rapper’s mother, Magda, shouted outside the court after the verdict was announced, her hands raised in triumph.

She has attended most of the hearing’s 453 sessions and was again present in court on Wednesday.

RELATED: ‘Democracy has won’: Golden Dawn guilty verdict celebrated across Greece.