Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced on Wednesday June 1 that he would no longer meet the Greek leaders whom he accuses of not « be honest« .
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« We will no longer have bilateral meetings with them“, declared the head of the Turkish state during a speech in front of his parliamentary group in Ankara while the leaders of the two countries multiply the mutual accusations. « You know that we had a high strategic council agreement with Greece. I warned our foreign minister yesterday (Tuesday), we broke this agreement“, he specified.
“We are fed up now”
Sealed in 2010, the agreement between Turkey and Greece provided for regular high-level meetings to develop cooperation between the two countries. About Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Recep Tayyip Erdogan denounced, without ever naming him: “He goes to the United States, he makes remarks against us in Congress. We are fed up now. If you are honest, we are ready to welcome you, but if you are not, sorry“, hammered the head of the Turkish state.
Speaking to journalists on Tuesday in Brussels, Kyriakos Mitsotakis assured that hewould not engage in a game of ping-pong of personal accusations with the Turkish President« . « Turkey is the one threatening us, clearly we are not threatening Turkey » and « will never be the ones who resort to escalation, insults and personal accusations“, he said, regretting that Ankara “again misses an opportunity to substantially improve its relations with Greece« .
« Totally unacceptable »
Turkey has intensified its criticism of Greece since Kyriakos Mitsotakis spoke to the US Congress in mid-May. The Greek Prime Minister then criticized Turkey without mentioning it openly. Turkish pro-government media interpreted the speech as a call on Washington not to provide the F-16 fighter jets requested by Turkey. The Turkish authorities also accuse the Greeks of arming the Aegean islands, in violation, according to them, of two treaties.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Cavusoglu reiterated on Tuesday that Ankara would challenge Greece’s sovereignty over the islands if it continued to send troops there. « Greece has violated the status of these islands and must disarm them. Otherwise, a debate about their sovereignty will beginhe told the official Anadolu Agency. Convinced of havingthe rightFor his part, the Greek Prime Minister described as « totally unacceptable » the « deluge of (Turkish) overflights of the Aegean Islands« Greek »last monthbut said he was confident because of his « powerful allies« .
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French President Emmanuel Macron, who chairs the European Union until July, gave his support to Athens, condemning any questioning of the « sovereignty» Greek. The same condemnation from Berlin, which judged « unacceptable » the « calling into question the sovereignty of EU member statessaid Wolfgang Büchner, spokesman for German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, on Wednesday. « Germany has been committed in the past to ensuring that outstanding issues between Greece and Turkey are resolved through dialogue (…) and international law.“, he added in Berlin, saying to himself “ready to continuein this process.
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