Ankara announced today that Greece has refused to negotiate the eastern Mediterranean crisis as Turkey continues wide maneuvers with northern Cyprus.
While Athens said it feared no threat, Moscow offered to mediate to resolve the crisis.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşolu said that his country had expressed its readiness for dialogue, but Greece did not respond to any initiatives in this regard.
In a joint press conference in Ankara with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of the Congo, Cavusoglu explained that Athens had initially agreed to the initiative presented by NATO to hold a meeting between the military leaders of the two countries, but then rejected it.
He stressed that there is no European consensus to support Greece’s behavior in the eastern Mediterranean, noting that the maneuvers that his country is conducting are being implemented within the framework of NATO’s laws.
For his part, the European Union called for an end to what it called provocations and unilateral actions in the eastern Mediterranean.
Earlier, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) - which includes Turkey and Greece in its membership - announced that technical talks would begin to avoid accidents between the two countries' fleets in the eastern Mediterranean, but Athens said it did not agree to the talks, and Ankara accused Greece of refusing to dialogue.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had said that any political, diplomatic or military mistake against Turkey would increase his country's resolve and would not push it to back down.
He stressed that Turkey now possesses the power to preserve its rights and interests.
Erdogan called on European countries, which he said had failed in the tests of Syria, Cyprus and Libya, to take a balanced position on the eastern Mediterranean file.
The French presidency announced its intention to host a summit that includes Greece, Spain, Italy, Cyprus and Malta on September 10.
In the context, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov announced that his country is ready to facilitate the establishment of a dialogue between Cyprus and Turkey to search for just solutions in accordance with international law.
Lavrov held talks in Nicosia with Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades and the Foreign Minister.
The Russian minister criticized the United States, describing it as a remote power that is trying to incite among the countries of the region.