Ankara rejects high-level meeting with Athens until Greek PM ‘pulls himself together’
As long as Greece keeps militarizing islands near Turkey, in violation of treaties, there will be no bilateral talks, Ankara says
PRESIDENT Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Friday that he refuses to meet with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis until the Greek leader “pulls himself together.”
On relations with Greece, Erdoğan told journalists during his return from Madrid that NATO leaders at the summit had offered to mediate and organize talks with Mitsotakis.
“We said ‘sorry, but we don’t have time for such a meeting right now.’ Because it is obvious that they are militarizing the islands,” said Erdoğan.
“Let him pull himself together. As long as he doesn’t pull himself together, it is not possible for us to meet,” he said.
Later in the day, Erdoğan also addressed reporters in Istanbul and said that Turkey has no desire to go to war with Greece, adding that Athens did not keep promises and violated air space 147 times.
Historic rivals Turkey and Greece have been at odds over issues ranging from overflights and the status of Aegean islands to maritime boundaries, hydrocarbon resources in the Mediterranean and the ethnically-split island of Cyprus.
Tensions flared again recently over airspace and the status of demilitarized islands in the Aegean. Erdoğan has said Mitsotakis “no longer exists for him” after the Greek premier lobbied for the United States not to sell Turkey F-16 fighter jets during a speech at the U.S. Congress.
Erdoğan also announced that Turkey was halting all bilateral talks with Greece that started in 2021. He also warned Greece to demilitarize islands in the Aegean, saying he was “not joking.” He spoke during Turkish wargames near the Greek islands that included an amphibious landing scenario.
Turkey is demanding that Greece demilitarize its eastern islands, citing the 20thcentury treaties that ceded sovereignty of the islands to Greece. Ankara says the Aegean islands were given to Greece under the 1923 Lausanne and 1947 Paris treaties on the condition it does not arm them.
Athens has said that Turkey’s remarks about it arming the islands are unfounded. The two countries, which are NATO members but have long been at odds over a range of issues, have both sent letters to the United Nations outlining their rival positions on airspace and the islands.
Starting from the Treaty of London in 1913, the militarization of the eastern Aegean islands was restricted and their demilitarized status was confirmed with the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923. The Lausanne pact established a political balance between the two countries by harmonizing vital interests, including those in the Aegean.
The 1947 Treaty of Paris, which ceded the Dodecanese islands from Italy to Greece, also confirmed their demilitarized status.
However, Greece argues that the 1936 Montreux Convention on Turkish Straits should be applied in this case, while Ankara says Greece’s obligation to disarm the islands remains unchanged under the Montreux Convention, highlighting that there is no provision that differentiates it from the Treaty of Lausanne on the issue.
Turkish leaders have repeatedly stressed that Ankara favors resolving outstanding
problems in the region through international law, good neighborly relations, dialogue and negotiations. Instead of opting to solve problems with Ankara through dialogue, Athens has, on several occasions, refused to sit at the negotiation table and opted to rally Brussels to take a tougher stance against Turkey.
Meanwhile, Mitsotakis on Thursday underlined the importance of dialogue between Turkey and Greece to resolve their
bilateral disputes.
Speaking at a press conference at the NATO summit in Madrid, Mitsotakis said Greece and Turkey must keep talking to resolve their issues in a “civilized manner.”
“We must meet, we must talk,” he said, referring to Erdoğan.
“We must deal with our differences in a civilized manner, in a framework of good neighborly relations and with international law as the sole point of reference. There is no other framework on which we can rely to resolve our differences.”
Turkey did not raise any issues against Greece during the summit, according to Mitsotakis.
However, he clarified that all members were told that the Ukraine crisis was the main focus for the summit, and there was no space for other discussions that could possibly destabilize the alliance on another front.