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A small island in the eastern Mediterranean can cause a confrontation between Turkey and Greece. Athens’ intentions to arm it have alarmed Ankara, which has urged its neighbors not to give it grounds for war.
The island of Kastelorizo is located 2 km from the Turkish coast and 560 km from the Greek capital Athens. According to the 1947 Paris Peace Treaty, the island should have a demilitarized state, but according to Turkey, Greece has sent troops there in recent days. Turkish diplomacy has even announced that Greece is trying to change the status of the island.
Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Turkey was open to dialogue with Greece to resolve their differences over rights and resources in the Mediterranean, Reuters reported. However, according to Cavusoglu, Greece is trying to provoke Turkey by assuming hostility. The chancellor commented on the information that Greece had sent troops to the island of Kastelorizo: “If there are weapons crossing the border, Greece will lose.”
The two NATO allies have marked differences over hydrocarbon rights in the eastern Mediterranean due to their contradictory views on the extent of continental shelves in the splashed waters of numerous Greek islands. Turkey claims that it also has the right to take advantage of the natural resources of the region, while Greece accuses its neighbors of serious violations of international law. Athens has called on the European Union and its Western partners to take action against Ankara.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that the great powers are using Greece as “bait”. At a meeting of the community’s foreign ministers, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell announced that consultations on imposing sanctions on Turkey would take place at the next summit in Brussels in three weeks. “This is a success not only for Greece, but for the entire EU. We are facing Turkish aggression in the eastern Mediterranean, which violates international law and international maritime law.” If Turkey does not come to its senses and return to dialogue and in compliance with international law, sanctions will be on the agenda, “Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias told Deutsche Welle.
Greece
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