Turkey seems overly irritated over the last 24 hours after the diplomatic barrage in Athens and the agreements between Greece and Egypt on the electrical interconnection with the Minister of Foreign Affairs Mevlüt Cavusoglu openly threatened the use of “hard power”.
Speaking to TRT World, Mevlüt Çavuşoγουlu said that Ankara’s “legal rights” and “sovereignty” in the Eastern Mediterranean were non-negotiable and warned of the use of “brute force”.
“We use brute force only when the other options are exhausted and with the aim of leading things to dialogue and diplomacy. In the Eastern Mediterranean, we mobilised to prove that our legal rights and sovereignty are not negotiable. At the same time, our President Erdogan called for a conference of coastal countries in the Mediterranean,” he said.
Turkey appears upset over the clear message sent by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, that Greece does not need permission from anyone about its network connection with Egypt.
“Greece will lay an electricity cable on our continental shelf,” Turkish media reported.
Indicative of the sentiment is the report of the news bulletin of the Turkish Haber Global: “There is a message for us from Greece. The one who sends it to us is the Prime Minister of Greece, Kyriakos Mitsotakis. The neighbouring country is working on a submarine power cable project which, however, will pass through our continental shelf. Mitsotakis said for this project ‘we will not ask for anyone’s permission. Tensions are rising between Greece and Turkey over the continental shelf. This time, Greece, with the submarine power cable, which it plans to build inside the Turkish continental shelf, is challenging Turkey’s rights,” the Turkish network said.
also read
Emma Raducanu becomes Dior’s latest ambassador