The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, referred to Greece and the Greek-Turkish dispute during his press conference following the NATO Summit.

Responding to the Greek prime minister’s claim that the casus belli is a “historical anomaly,” the Turkish president made a rather unexpected comment: “The overwhelming majority of my people do not even know what the issue of the casus belli is. If you ask them what it is, they would not know. That is why I do not think we should burden our people with these issues. And we are already telling our Greek friends: let’s not burden either Greek citizens or our own citizens with this. Come, sit down, let’s talk and finish the job.”

At another point in his remarks, he asked: “Have we ever asked Mr. Mitsotakis about the defence equipment that Greece has acquired: ‘Why did you buy these?’”

He added: “We could have said such things, but there was no reason to. They are free to buy and sell as they wish. As far as Turkey is concerned, we already produce these systems ourselves.”

At another point, the Turkish president commented that Greece’s and Israel’s objections to Turkey acquiring F-35 aircraft “have no place in my world.”

“Netanyahu is known for the kind of waters he operates in; Mitsotakis should not have made the mistake of following his statements,” Erdoğan also said.

At the same time, the Turkish president stated that he shares the Greek prime minister’s view regarding the Aegean.

“I also share the same view as Mitsotakis regarding the resolution of the issues in the Aegean. I hope that first our foreign ministers, and then, if necessary, we ourselves will sit down at the table and discuss this issue. But let me say this clearly and openly: resolving the issues concerning these waters is primarily the duty of the leaders,” he said.