Turkey: War with Greece 'just a matter of time'

Escorted by Navy warships, Turkey’s Oruc Reis seismic vessel is seen in the Eastern Mediterranean on 20 August 2020 [Turkish National Defense Ministry/Anadolu Agency]

Head of Turkish National Movement Party Devlet Bahçeli has declared that war with Greece is “just a matter of time”, The New Khaleej reported on Friday.

“It is inconceivable to turn our backs on our historical interests in the Mediterranean and the Aegean,” Bahçeli announced in a statement reported by the Arabic news website.

“It seems that Greece’s appetite and desire to be thrown into the sea has swelled again,” stressing that war in the Mediterranean and the Aegean is “just a matter of time”.

He added: “Greece’s goal is to come again and occupy our lands from where we threw them out 98 years ago. We are facing a new invasion plan.”

The Turkish politician, who is an ally of the Turkish ruling party, continued: “From now on, the attitude and behaviour of Greece will be what will determine the increasing tensions that will cause bleeding or an abominable confrontation.”

Turkey and Greece are at odds over the demarcation of sea borders in the Mediterranean and the right to explore hydrocarbon resources there.

Read: Greece pulls out of NATO-backed talks with Turkey

On Thursday, NATO Chief Jens Stoltenberg announced that Greece are agreed to start talks with Turkey to deescalate tension, but Greece has denied this.

Responding to Greece’s denial, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu was reported by Anadolu Agency on Friday stating:

They [Athens] initially agreed [to the discussions] then told they did not. It is in fact Greece that is lying and not the secretary-general. Greece once again showed they are not in favour of dialogue.

Later on, Stoltenberg announced the start of talks between the two countries.

“We believe that there is a need to have technical talks on how to develop enhanced mechanisms for deconfliction,” Stoltenberg was reported by Anadolu Agency stating at a news conference after the meeting of NATO ambassadors.

“No agreement has been reached yet, but the talks have started,” Stoltenberg confirmed.

Erdogan: Turkey ‘will not back down’ in Mediterranean standoff

Unless otherwise stated in the article above, this work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. If the image(s) bear our credit, this license also applies to them. What does that mean? For other permissions, please contact us.