Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis sent two identical messages to the UN Security Council and the Secretary-General of the United Nations, to protest what he described as a Turkish escalation against his country, at a time when Ankara announced that Athens had refused to negotiate over the eastern Mediterranean crisis and did not respond to any initiative in this regard.
Mitsotakis stipulated stopping what he described as Turkish provocative actions for the sake of dialogue, and said that his country remains committed to the principles of peaceful settlement of disputes, and that it is ready to resume its dialogue with Turkey from the point at which it stopped in March 2016.
He said that this requires Turkey to be prepared to stop any illegal activity in the eastern Mediterranean, and to refrain from inflammatory statements and provocative actions that stand in the way of meaningful dialogue.
The Greek Prime Minister clarified - in his two messages - that Turkey has been practicing a major escalation of acts and aggressive rhetoric since last July 21, stressing that they constitute an unprecedented threat to the sovereignty and rights of Greece, as well as peace and stability in the wider region.
The Greek Prime Minister considered that Turkey continues its provocative actions in the Eastern Mediterranean (Reuters)
Athena did not respond to calls for dialogue
On the other hand, Turkey announced today that Greece refused to negotiate on the eastern Mediterranean crisis, and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that his country has shown its readiness for dialogue, but Greece has not responded to any initiative 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.
Dujarric confirmed that the United Nations is closely following developments in the eastern Mediterranean (Reuters)
International follow-up of developments
In the context, the United Nations said that it is closely following developments in the eastern Mediterranean, noting that its Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, had contacted the Turkish and Greek authorities, and the need to settle differences between the two countries was emphasized through dialogue.
Stefan Dujarric, spokesman for the Secretary-General of the United Nations - said in a press conference - that the international organization "remains very concerned about the continuing tension between the two countries, as we stressed the need to settle differences through dialogue."
For his part, the European Union called for an end to what it called provocations and unilateral actions in the eastern Mediterranean.
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.
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.