The meeting today between Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias and his Turkish counterpart Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu on the sidelines of the GLOBSEC Bratislava Global Security Forum was described as “almost jovial,” with Dendias seen smiling often.
Greek Foreign Minister @NikosDendias meets with Turkish Foreign Minister @MevlutCavusoglu briefly in Bratislava, agree to set date for start of exploratory talks.
Video of meeting shows cordial, almost jovial atmosphere between the two.#Greece #Turkey
— Elena Becatoros (@ElenaBec) October 8, 2020
However, for all the smiles and “almost jovial” nature of the meeting, it did not take long for the provocations to begin with Çavuşoğlu spouting out Turkish propaganda during his allocated time to make a presentation.
During his presentation at the Security Forum in Bratislava, Çavuşoğlu displayed three maps.
The first was the famous map of Seville. The second was a map with Greek and Turkish flags that according to Çavuşoğlu showed the so-called maximalist positions of Greece in the region. The third map is that of Kastelorizo which Çavuşoğlu said is an island just 2 km from its Turkey’s shores and claims 40,000 km2 of continental shelf.
At the same time, Çavuşoğlu referred to the process of exploratory contacts that was not launched in August, saying that Greece, by signing a pact with Egypt that is perfectly compatible with international law (the United Nations Charter Law of the Sea), essentially proceeded in a move of bad faith towards Turkey and the process of demarcations.
Although Dendias was smiling during his meeting with his Turkish counterpart on the sidelines of the Security Forum, it comes as Turkey made a major provocation by announcing it will conduct a live fire drill in the middle of the Aegean on the day Greece celebrates one of its most important public holiday’s, as reported by Greek City Times.
Turkey issued two navigational telexes (NAVTEX) from its naval station in Smyrna (Σμύρνα, Turkish: İzmir) and Attaleia (Ἀττάλεια, Antalya) to sail in the middle of the Aegean and southeast Aegean and conduct live fire exercises.
The reserve area is between the islands of Chios, Evia, Praron and Skyros and will go from from October 26-28, as well as an area between Rhodes and Kastellorizo, in international on Friday and Saturday.
Dear Prime Minister Mitsotakis. I hear you now and then speak loudly about the value that HELLAS places on the massive HELLENIC Diaspora. And I note that you are to have your very first meeting on line, and it will be with Mr Andrew Liveris. But are you aware of how angry so many of us are over how Turkey consistently flaunts international law, existing treaties and threatens our many relations in the land of our heritage? Do you fully appreciate just how Mrs Merkel’s and Mr Stoltenburg’s consistent support for the most evil man in all of Eurasia makes our very DNA boil? We are all far from HELLAS. Except for our holidays there, our constant communications (now so many on line) with relations there, and with friends, we are trapped in a mire of pain and fear for being unable to be there to help more realistically. I myself am a trained former Australian Navy officer. When I enlisted there were NO, i.e. ZERO other HELLENES in the Australian Navy, or so they told me. And I have many friends who themselves are ex HELLENIC Navy or like my dad (who never received his army pension). We wonder WHY you are not making regular, yes regular, formal complaints to the United Nations, even though Erdogan has placed his stooge in a key role. Why you are not haranguing NATO. Please Sir, speak to us. Speak with us.