Erdogan says Greek PM’s Davos comments inconsequential
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has slammed comments made by Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in Davos on Thursday as inconsequential.
“Mitsotakis can say what he wants, but his statements are not enough to change the fate of the region,” Erdogan said on Friday. He did not clarify what he meant.
Speaking during a session at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss mountain resort, Mitsotakis expressed his conviction that bilateral differences with Turkey can be resolved through dialogue with Turkey’s president.
“We should be able to sit down with Turkey as reasonable adults and resolve our main difference, which is the delimitation of maritime zones in the Aegean and the eastern Mediterranean,” he said.
Erdogan on Friday also accused Greece of violating the Lausanne Treaty of 1923 by refusing to demilitarize its eastern Aegean islands.
“We are taking the necessary steps, we are responding [to Greek allegations] in international forums. They (the Greeks) will do what is necessary,” he said.
The Turkish strongman meanwhile batted away criticism from The Economist which has published a report him of pulling his country in an authoritarian direction.
“Will the future of Turkey be determined by the British magazine? My people will decide [the future],” he said.
