Dialogue without preconditions on the eastern Mediterranean .. Turkey officially responds to the Macron summit

Turkey announced today, Friday, its readiness for dialogue with Greece without preconditions, and rejected the content of a statement issued by European countries on the eastern Mediterranean conflict, accusing these countries of separating from reality and siding with Athens.

Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman, Hami Aksoy, said that Greece should "sit at the negotiating table with Turkey without conditions in order to achieve dialogue and cooperation in the region."

He added that Athens should withdraw its warships surrounding the Turkish survey vessel "Uruch President" to defuse the tension.

Aksoy said, "(Greece) should stop using the European Union as a tool to serve its narrow-minded interests, and the Union and the countries that signed the joint statement should avoid the policy of unilateral bias used without discrimination under the pretext of solidarity."

With Greece,

the Mediterranean countries, members of the European Union, held a summit in France on Thursday, and issued a statement on the conflict in the eastern Mediterranean, calling for dialogue, and at the same time affirming their support for Greece and Greek Cyprus.

These countries are: France, Italy, Malta, Portugal, Spain, Greece and Cyprus.

After the summit, French President Emmanuel Macron said that these countries wanted to re-engage in a dialogue with Turkey "with good intentions."

But the summit statement threatened to reject "new sanctions" on Turkey by the end of September, unless Ankara negotiates to resolve the conflict with Greece and Cyprus.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry said, "The phrases in the joint statement are biased, separate from reality and lack a legal basis."

The countries of the European Mediterranean Basin affirmed that they stand by Greece, and threatened to punish Turkey (Reuters)

On

Thursday, the Europeans have no authority before the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that the European Union does not have any judicial authority to decide on maritime border matters, adding that Ankara expects the bloc to remain neutral.

It is noteworthy that the dispute between Turkey and Greece escalated last month after Turkey sent the survey ship "Oroch President" to the region to map out oil and gas exploration in waters that both parties claim to own.

The Turkish Defense Ministry has published pictures of the joint "Mediterranean Storm 2020" maneuvers that it is conducting with the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

The ministry stated in a statement yesterday, Thursday, that the Mediterranean Storm 2020 maneuvers are continuing with success.

The exercises were launched on September 6 in northern Cyprus, and are aimed at developing mutual training and cooperation between the forces of the two sides.

De-escalation

parallel with the escalation, military officials from Turkey and Greece met at NATO headquarters on Thursday.

To conduct talks aimed at containing tension.

In the same context, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that he would visit Cyprus tomorrow, Saturday, to seek a peaceful solution to end the growing tension in the eastern Mediterranean region.

Pompeo said on Thursday that his visit to Cyprus came as a continuation of contacts made by US President Donald Trump with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

"We hope that there will be a real dialogue, and that military equipment will be withdrawn so that these talks can be held," Pompeo said.