During his visit to Cyprus today, Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias gave the context to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's comments against his Turkish counterpart Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu.
The Greek Foreign Minister described how in a completely calm tone, Pompeo attacked Turkey and forced Çavuşoğlu to change his plans and speech in order to retaliate.
"It was unbelievable. Unbelievable. Because it was not rage, it was a text read in a calm voice with a perfectly clear set of reasoning. The other side lost it completely. They did not expect it. He (Çavuşoğlu) left the text and started answering from outside [his prepared text]", Dendias stated.
According to diplomatic sources, Pompeo referred to the provocative actions of Turkey in the Eastern Mediterranean, Libya, Syria and Nagorno-Karabakh, and to Turkey’s purchase of the Russian S-400 missile defense system - which he described as “a gift to Russia” by a NATO alliance member.
The alliance’s deconfliction mechanism, which is not working because of Turkey, should restart, sources said.
During today's meeting with his Cypriot counterpart Nikos Christodoulidis, Dendias also spoke about the illegal and provocative behavior of Turkey.
Dendias stressed that "the European Council last October gave Turkey the opportunity to de-escalate in the Eastern Mediterranean and the wider area."
"Turkey's latest move for alleged de-escalation are not convincing," he said, adding "That is why we have jointly called on other countries of the European Union to assume their responsibilities."
"They have to make these decisions that will lead Turkey to a real path of de-escalation and a constructive dialogue on the only basis we can accept. This basis is International Law and the Law of the Sea", Dendias said.
