Turkey has warned Greece against exceeding the maximum limits of military forces allowed on the Greek islands located in the Aegean Sea. In contrast, the Greek Broadcasting Corporation quoted the Greek Foreign Ministry as saying that Athens intends to file a complaint with the United Nations about Turkey's violation of its sovereignty over a number of islands.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said in an interview published by the Turkish newspaper "Hurriyet" yesterday, Thursday, that Greece must abide by the peace treaty concluded in 1947, which allows only a small military unit of Greek soldiers to be present in the Dodecanese islands, and the minister warned to escalate the situation if the situation is not Greece is bound by the terms of the peace treaty.
Italy had ceded to Greece after World War II the Dodecanese Islands, a group of islands located off the Turkish coast, including Rhodes and Kos.
Ankara says Athens is violating the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne and the 1947 Paris Peace Treaty by militarizing the islands near the Turkish coast.
Greece responds to the Turkish accusations by saying that the increase in the number of its forces on its islands in the Aegean Sea is a reaction to the presence of many landing strips along the western coast of Turkey, and Athens stresses its right to defend itself.
Greek complaint
In a related context, the Greek Foreign Ministry called - yesterday, Thursday, in a letter to United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres - Turkey to stop questioning Greece's sovereignty over its islands in the Aegean Sea, and Greece called on Turkey to "refrain from illegal activities that violate Greece's sovereignty."
Last Friday, the Greek Foreign Ministry informed Turkey of its protest after an "unprecedented violation of Greek sovereignty by two Turkish combat planes," and the ministry stated that the two planes approached the port of Alexandroupolis, located near the Greek-Turkish border in northeastern Greece.
The dispute over the islands of the Aegean Sea is only one of the old and recent disputes between Turkey and Greece, which also includes the dispute over natural gas reserves in the Mediterranean, the file of migrants and also the island of Cyprus.
Erdogan's decision
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced a few days ago the suspension of communication with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, and said that he "no longer exists" for him, and the Turkish president decided to cancel the joint strategic council meeting with Greece.
Erdogan's decision came in response to Mitsotakis' call to the US Congress not to deliver F-16 fighters to Turkey.
In light of the escalating tension between Turkey and Greece, the US State Department on Wednesday called on the two NATO countries to resolve their differences in the region diplomatically, adding that the two countries are "important allies of the United States within NATO."