Ankara again used provocative rhetoric regarding Greek-Turkish issues, despite Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias' telling his Turkish counterpart Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu in Athens days ago that there must be respect for international law.
This time the provocations were made by the spokesman of Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), Ömer Çelik.
Çelik stressed that "the Greek Foreign Minister did not show the rudeness he showed in Ankara," in reference to Dendias' humbling of Çavuşoğlu after the Turkish Foreign Minister attempted to propagate about a "Turkish minority" in Greece.
"Athens must understand that Turkey cannot solve any problem when it is pressured by the European Union or other factors," the spokesman said.
"There is only one method, and that is the reconciliation of Turkey and Greece," he said, adding: "Geographical differences cannot be resolved by the presence of French ships in the Eastern Mediterranean."
"There should be no maximalist positions on the Greek side at the negotiating table," Çelik continued, but in usual fashion did not provide an example of Greece's so-called "maximalist position."
"All the nations do it for their own purpose and not because they love Greece so much," he said.
Meanwhile, according to Çavuşoğlu, a list of economic cooperation programs was approved by Deputy Foreign Minister Costas Frangogiannis and Turkish Deputy Foreign Minister Sedat Önal in Kavala on May 29, according to diplomatic sources.
The list, as it is known, includes a total of 25 issues - 15 proposed by the Greek side, 8 proposed by the Turkish, and two related to environmental cooperation.
These were raised for the first time for discussion during the meeting of the two deputy ministers in Kavala.
Areas of interest are: Economic - Business Cooperation, Transport-Telecommunications, Technology, Energy, Tourism, Shipping, Education, Social Security, Health and Environment.
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