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The Greek Prime Minister said he was concerned that the Western powers’ response to the Turkish actions had encouraged them to behave unacceptably.
Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ remarks came on Friday after a meeting with outgoing German Chancellor Angela Merkel, a recent official visit to Athens.
“I fear that Western calming will encourage Turkish arbitrary action, and it is time for European principles to be translated into European policy and, in particular, for European practices against those who insult it,” he said.
Neighbors and NATO allies Greece and Turkey are at odds over a range of issues, including territorial disputes in the Aegean Sea that separates them, drilling rights in the eastern Mediterranean, and Cyprus’s ethnically-divided island.
“Nobody is looking for a definitive break in relations between the European Union and Turkey. It would not be something that would be good for Europe or for Greece or ultimately for Turkey,” Mitsotakis said.
Turkey has been an official candidate for accession to the 27-member EU for more than two decades, but relations with the bloc have also been strained recently.
“I believe that Turkey as a NATO member and Turkey as our neighbor should be treated in such a way that we make it clear that it is in our interest to have reasonable relations with Turkey,” Merkel said. “Even with differences of opinion we have, for example, even on human rights issues.”
Germany has in the past emphasized that dialogue is the key to improving relations with Turkey. Greece insists that it is open to dialogue with its neighbors, but that a similar will must exist on both sides. Turkey has also said it is willing to talk, and the two are engaged in a series of low-level trust-building discussions.
“On the one hand, Greece extends a hand of friendship; “On the other hand, Greece will first defend its sovereignty and its sovereign rights if it believes it will be violated in any way,” Mitsotakis said.
Greece and Turkey clashed almost last year when they sent warships to the sea regions, which they considered their own. Even if these scenes were not repeated, the two countries regularly cut across Cyprus, against which Turkey has posed a consistent challenge to stop the Eastern Mediterranean from declaring offshore for oil and gas.