US, NATO call on Turkiye, Greece to discuss ending mutual tension

Following tirades of strong remarks, on Friday, the US and NATO called on Turkiye and Greece to use dialogue and diplomatic means to end the mutual tension.

In a joint press conference held by US Secretary Antony Blinken and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, Stoltenberg expressed: “Turkiye and Greece are two highly valued allies.”

Stoltenberg added: “They participate and contribute to NATO in many different ways. Any differences between them, of course, should be solved by diplomatic means.”

He stated: “We have also at NATO established what we call a deconfliction mechanism where Turkiye and Greece can engage and have used this previously to provide information to provide also ways to deconflict any dangerous situation or behaviour in, for instance, the Aegean Sea.”

For his part, Blinken affirmed: “Greece and Türkiye are both vital, important allies, friends of the United States.”

READ: ‘Without Turkiye, NATO is weak’, Erdogan

He added: “They have differences and of course, we’d like to see them resolve these differences in a constructive way through dialogue. They’ve done so in the past and we would expect them to do so going forward.”

In response to Greek threats, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared on Tuesday that Türkiye could “come all of a sudden one night,” suggesting that a Turkish attack cannot be ruled out.

According to Turkiye, Greece is violating international agreements by keeping a military presence on islands close to Türkiye’s Aegean coastline.