A fierce confrontation between Nikos Dendias and the Turkish ambassador to Oslo took place in the Norwegian capital.

Specifically, everything took place at the Norwegian Institute of International Relations, where an open discussion was held, entitled: “The application of International Maritime Law in the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean”.

The Greek Foreign Minister stated that Turkey, with specific criminal actions culminating in the Turkish-Libyan memorandum, chooses to ignore the international law of the sea and has been threatening Greece since 1995 with a “casus belli” (threat of war).

Nikos Dendias even showed the audience the point of the map, where ships of the Turkish navy harrashed the Italian ship “Nautical Geo”, which was conducting seismic surveys on behalf of the EU, on the plan of EastMed. 

The Turkish ambassador to Norway began provocatively by saying that everything he heard was not at all pleasant. You are missing the crucial point, the ambassador said addressing the Greek Minister, that everything that Turkey is doing is in response to the Greek moves. He mentioned as an example that the casus belli was issued by the Turkish National Assembly when Greece said it would unilaterally expand its territorial waters to 12 nm.

The ambassador at that point, exceeding all limits of cοurtacy, he addressed Nikos Dendias saying that the Aegean has two sides, “one is that of Asia Minor, you should probably remember it from history”, obviously implying the Greek Genocide of 1922.

Ankara is not ready to have a dialogue only on the Law of the Sea, the ambassador said, accusing Greece of not being in the mood for a real dialogue, putting the issue of demilitarization of the islands on the table, citing the Treaty of Lausanne, but obviously ignoring the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, the maintenance of the so-called “Aegean Army” on the shores of Asia Minor with the presence of the most powerful amphibious forces of the Mediterranean and the constant threat of war against Greece.

Watch the entire diplomatic incident below:

Nikos Dendias’ answer was straight to the point:

You are saying openly to an audience and likely, also on the internet, that threatening with war any country is legitimate.But if I remember well, from what I was taught in the university,you have subscribed to the UN Charter (response to a question by Amb. of ?? to ?? @nupinytt) pic.twitter.com/mnGm2JYZB8

— Nikos Dendias (@NikosDendias) February 16, 2022

See Also:

New war threats by Erdogan: “We will not remain silent about military activities on the islands”

And here comes Turkey who says “because I didn’t subscribe to the UNCLOS, you are not allowed to implement UNCLOS, and if you do implement UNCLOS, it’s a threat of war against you, and that’s that, because that’s what I want”. Is that a reasonable conduct in the 21st century? pic.twitter.com/5fNPLUtgfr

— Nikos Dendias (@NikosDendias) February 16, 2022