The participants in the summit of the countries of Southern Europe are in solidarity with Greece in the light of Turkey’s actions in the Mediterranean. This was announced by French President Emmanuel Macron.
According to the French leader, Paris is ready to enter into dialogue with Ankara to resolve the situation. According to him, he intends to find a balance of interests, and in this position “there is no naivety”, reports TASS.
The Mediterranean has become a theater of conflicts that continue in Syria and Libya, the French leader said.
On September 6, Turkey announced that it was sending its tanks towards the Greek border.
On September 3, it became known that Ankara and Athens agreed to start negotiations within NATO to resolve the situation in the Mediterranean.
The day before, the German newspaper Die Welt, citing Turkish military sources, reported on the plans of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to provoke a conflict with Athens and the allegedly given order to sink a Greek ship or shoot down a Greek fighter jet. Sources of the publication claimed that the military ignored this order.
The official representative of the Greek government Stelios Petsas, commenting on this publication on the air of the Open TV channel, noted the authority of Die Welt and the absence of a refutation of this information.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry called the accusations against his country by Petsas a provocation.
On August 29, Turkey issued a notification on the international warning system NAVTEX about the exercise in the Mediterranean Sea from August 29 to September 11. Presumably, the exercise was announced due to the crisis in relations with Greece. The day before, Ankara had reported the interception of six Greek F-16 fighters in the Eastern Mediterranean. The Turkish Air Force forced them to leave the area.
At the end of August, Athens said that threats to use force from Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay were contrary to modern political culture and international law.
The conflict between the countries escalated in August after interference with the Turkish ship Oruc Reis, which was conducting seismic research in the Eastern Mediterranean. Erdogan then said that Turkey would not abandon its plans for exploration in the Mediterranean, despite the threat of imposing sanctions.