"Taking decisions against Turkey will not resolve the existing problems, on the contrary, it will deepen them. If the EU takes additional measures against Turkey, we'll have to respond," said Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu after meeting with Josep Borrell, High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.
The Turkish Minister also accused Greece of signing agreements with other countries, excluding Turkey. "They wanted to imprison Turkey in the area of our territorial waters. Because they did not heed our warnings, we took our own steps. In order not to increase the intensity from now on, we said that we will show elasticity in some issues. Our President told Mitsotakis personally. We are in favour of continuing the dialogue," he said.
Last week France called for an EU meeting to discuss further sanctions on Turkey due to the dispute in the Eastern Mediterranean and Libya.
On his part, Borrell stated that "Turkey does not recognise it, but the Republic of Cyprus is a member of the EU. At the same time, a solution must be found that satisfies both sides. We discussed this. Negotiations between Greece and Turkey should begin." Borrell also spoke of the need to overhaul a 2016 agreement between Turkey and the EU.
During the joint press conference, Cavusoglu also renewed a call for France to apologise for its depiction of a standoff between Turkish and French ships in the Mediterranean Sea. France suspended its involvement in a NATO naval operation over the incident.
This comes at a time when Turkey is threatening to violate Greece’s maritime space to extract natural resources, in what can be described as piracy. Turkey is already violating Cyprus’ Exclusive Economic Zone in the research of oil and gas, but has thus far failed.
It is recalled a month ago, Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades said that if Turkey did not end its aggression in the eastern Mediterranean it should no longer be an EU candidate.
“Either they are compliant with the terms and conditions of any other candidate country, otherwise they could not be either a candidate or accepted,” Anastasiades said.