Yesterday’s contacts between the Greek and Turkish Defense Ministers and Foreign Ministers may have left an open window for reconciliation and dialogue between the two countries, following the extreme rhetoric from Ankara in recent weeks, but new statements made by Erdogan on Friday showed that communication at government level will not be an easy task.
Asked after Friday prayers about the tensions with Athens, the Turkish President said “we have concluded the strategic cooperation meetings with Greece. There will be no meeting this year and I can not be clearer. Greece will have to take care of itself from now on. I expressed my reactions to the process that is being followed and said that I will not meet with them again unless an honest politician is in front of me. We have finished our meetings with Greece”, Erdogan continued, while he did not forget Kyriakos Mitsotakis and his presence in the Congress.
“For me, there is no one called Mitsotakis anymore. We will keep his word and we will meet only with honest politicians. We are self-sufficient. There was a man who says in the US: ‘Do not give F-16s to Turkey’. We are facing Greece. The United States will probably not act in accordance with the word of Greece”, the Turkish President stressed.
Elsewhere in his remarks, Erdogan confirmed the official visit of Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to Turkey on June 22, saying the Saudi leader would visit Ankara. “We will welcome the crown prince on Wednesday in Kulige”, the Turkish President told reporters, using the name of the Turkish presidential palace in Ankara.
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Mitsotakis: Open communication channels to return to calm waters
“Our defense, of Greece and Cyprus, against any revisionist dispositions, is International Law. It is our strong alliances, it is our participation in the European family. And with calm determination and composure we will always oppose any rhetoric that goes beyond the rules of good diplomatic practice”, said Kyriakos Mitsotakis from Nicosia, where he met with Cypriot President Nikos Anastasiadis.
“I believe that this approach is ultimately the right one and that we will soon be able to return to calmer waters, always keeping open channels of communication which, even in the most difficult times -my view was and is- they should never be closed”, he said Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
“I want to express my absolute satisfaction because the whole management of a rhetoric, foreign to our mentality, by the Greek government, is such that it definitely weakens and neutralizes the goals that some with revisionist views and perceptions may have”, said on his side the President of the Republic of Cyprus Nikos Anastasiadis.
