Turkish Foreign Ministers Mevlut Cavusoglu and Greek Foreign Ministers Nikos Dendias had a verbal skirmish while delivering a joint statement following talks in Ankara, YeniSafak reported on April 15.
So, Dendias said that in Thrace (the region in the east of the Balkans, where Turkey, Greece and Bulgaria border) there is no Turkish minority, but there is a Muslim minority. In addition, the minister stressed that the Turkish authorities violate the sovereign rights of Greece, and also regularly threaten with war if it expands its territorial waters in the Aegean Sea.
“In my speech, I did not voice any accusations against Greece. But he [Дендиас] said that we are violating the sovereignty of Greece. We cannot accept such statements. Our actions are aimed at protecting the rights of the Turkish Cypriots and the Turkish minority in Greece, ”Cavusoglu replied.
The sides several times took additional time to exchange statements, until the head of the Turkish Foreign Ministry recalled that they were late for dinner. After that, the ministers left the press conference laughing.
Earlier on Thursday, Cavusoglu said that the Turkish authorities admit the possibility of resolving bilateral issues with Greece through dialogue.
At the end of March, following discussions on EU-Turkey relations, European leaders welcomed the recently achieved de-escalation in the Eastern Mediterranean region by halting illegal drilling operations by Turkey, resuming Greek-Turkish negotiations and scheduling upcoming negotiations on the Cyprus issue under the auspices of the UN.
In this regard, the European Union expressed its readiness to expand cooperation with Turkey in various fields, provided that such de-escalation is sustainable and the republic acts constructively.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry stated that they support a positive decision on the agenda of the virtual summit of the heads of the European Union in relation to the republic, although the document contains unfounded claims to Ankara.
Turkey and Greece resumed contacts in January 2021 in Istanbul after a five-year break, and during this time they managed to hold two rounds of meetings. Ankara and Athens have accumulated many claims against each other. They, in particular, compete in the struggle for the continental shelves, some islands in the Aegean Sea, their positions differ in the solution of the Cyprus problem, the delimitation of the airspace in the Mediterranean Sea.