Continental shelf, territorial waters, airspace, demilitarization of islands, island and islet sovereign status, air traffic control centers (FIR) and jurisdiction of search and rescue operations are on Ankara’s agenda, according to the Anadolu news agency.
“Turkey and Greece begin exploratory talks on Aegean and Mediterranean after five years” is the headline.
The aim, according to the article, is the laying of “the foundations for a just and comprehensive solution in the Aegean Sea and the Eastern Mediterranean”.
In the same time, Turkish President Erdogan referred to the “difficult 2020” for EU-Turkey relations and the obstacles placed by “unilateral actions of Member States” on Turkey’s accession corridor to the Union.
He spoke again about the “strategic blindness” on the Eastern Mediterranean and the Cyprus issue, where his country was “wronged”, while they tried to “imprison Turkey on its shores”.
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Regarding relations with Greece, he accused Athens of “airspace violations and illegal activities on the islands in recent years” and called on it to let go of tensions, in order to begin “a new era with the exploratory contacts, in January 25”.
The Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, however, threatened Greece and the EU again in view of the start of the 61st round of exploratory contacts.
During his meeting with the ambassadors of the European Union countries, he stated that in case the United Europe supports Greece “as it did at the summit of October “, then Turkey will do what it did until recently, implying that it will return to the tactic of escalating the tensions in the area.