Mitsotakis to meet Erdogan on May 13 in Ankara
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has announced that he will meet Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on May 13 in Ankara.
The two leaders last met in December in Athens.
In a statement after the end of the extraordinary European summit in Brussels, Mitsotakis, after confirming the date, described Turkey’s reaction to Greece’s declaration on the creation of marine environmental parks in the Aegean Sea as completely unjustified.
“Greece exercises its sovereign rights in the Aegean Sea on the basis of international law and the law of the sea and I am impressed by this completely unjustified reaction of Turkey to an initiative, which ultimately has an environmental characteristic,” Mitsotakis said.
He added that he does not think that the improvement in Greek-Turkish relations means that Turkey’s positions regarding the delimitation of maritime zones have automatically changed.
Asked about the conclusions of the summit on Euro-Turkish relations, Mitsotakis stressed that these are satisfactory for both Greece and Cyprus as they are based on the framework of previous European Council decisions that define how EU-Turkish relations can be improved.
Regarding the new crisis in the Middle East, Mitsotakis noted that emphasis was placed on preventing an escalation of the conflict. “I think it is extremely important that the text of the conclusions also refers to the situation in Gaza. The crisis is such that it requires an immediate ceasefire,” he said.
