The Turkish Foreign Ministry released on Tuesday an aggressive statement answering to the Greek Foreign Ministry and its announcement after the provocative statements by Recep Tayyip Erdogan from Smyrna.

In his statement, the Turkish President had “praised” the way the Greeks of Smyrna (Izmir) were uprooted and slaughtered by the Turks led by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in 1922.

The Greek Foreign Ministry’s statement pointed out that Greece “is not going to be swept away in the instrumentalisation of foreign policy to serve domestic political expediencies, or use history with terms that are offensive to neighbouring countries”.

In its statement, 48 hours after Erdogan’s speech in Smyrna in the presence of Gray Wolves leader Develet Bahceli, the Turkish Foreign Ministry calls for the official Greek respond…”unfortunate”.

The Turkish government even go as far as to claim that it was the answer by the Greek Foreign Ministry that “does not match the good neighborly climate we are trying to develop” and not the Turkish President’s inflammatory statements.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry’s announcement states: “The Greeks had invaded the East and had caused damage and for that reason had paid the price. This statement is unfortunate as it does not match the good neighborly climate we are trying to develop”.