in-cyprus 12 August 2020 - by Annie Charalambous
EU states have urged foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell to call emergency foreign ministers talks on potential Turkey sanctions.
The office of Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has urged Borrell to discuss sanctions after a Turkish convoy, accompanied by warships and fighter jets, sailed into disputed waters near Greek islands to search for oil and gas.
“There will be no tolerance. Greece will defend its [territorial] integrity,” Greek foreign minister Nikos Dendias said on Tuesday, after putting the Greek military on high alert.
“We call on Turkey to leave the Greek continental shelf immediately,” he added.
“Our determination is unfaltering here,” Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said the same day.
“Every drop of our blue homeland is sacred,” a Turkish spokesman, Fahrettin Altun, also tweeted on Tuesday, using a Turkish naval motto.
For his part, Borrell’s spokesman said the EU was seized by the Greco-Turkish problem, but did not confirm if EU foreign ministers would meet.
“The situation in the eastern Mediterranean is extremely worrying and needs to be solved in a dialogue,” the EU spokesman said.
