“Turkey will not back down, it will support its rights,” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu insisted, raising the issue of the Aegean, the “Turkish” minority, the refoulement of migrants, during a press conference with his German counterpart Heiko Maas. “Greece is violating international law. Cyprus and Greece are spoiled by the EU,” he added.
“Turkey urges Greece not to ‘put itself in danger’ by letting itself inveigled by some countries in the Eastern Mediterranean. Greece should not be deceived by countries that throw it in the way of the Turkish navy… Do not risk with exercises, with any step, this time there will be no accident, this time we will do what we have to do.”
“We will never let Greece interpret international law. The Greeks only make the decisions that are in their interests,” asserted the Turkish foreign minister.
“We are open to dialogue to resolve the problems, to make a fair distribution, but not on Greek terms,” he said. “Dendias showed his level with the statements he made in Athens,” he claimed.
On his part, the German minister warned that “EU-Turkey relations have reached a turning point. We want a direct Turkey-Greece dialogue, and we want to prevent further escalation,” he said.