Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan continued to use belligerent rhetoric against Greece, saying Turkey would move forward with its operations for oil exploration in the eastern Mediterranean no matter with Greek PM Alexis Tsipras said.

During his address at a meeting of the Justice and Development Party (AKP), Mr. Erdogan
“We have four ships in the area and we have taken our measures. The Prime Minister of Greece says some things on his own. Whatever he says we have rights there. In the name of defending our rights, our drilling ships will continue their explorations. We have taken and we will take the necessary measures”, he said.

“Until we achieve a fair distribution of natural resources in the eastern Mediterranean, we will continue our decisive steps in the region. We will not allow any search and drilling efforts that ignore the rights and interests of Turkey and the “Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus”, Erdogan.

On the issue of the purchase of the Russian S-400 anti-missile system and the row it caused with the US, Mr. Erdogan said his country would not “budge”, only days before his meeting with US President Donald Trump.