Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan called on Athens to "come to its senses", saying that the recent test firing of the Tayfun missile made Greece "crazy" and announcing further actions and tests to increase its range.
"We cannot accept Greece's attitude lately. We cannot remain passive and silent in this aggressive and hostile attitude. Greece must gather its mind," said the Turkish president during a joint interview with the pro-government networks ATV and A Haber on Wednesday night.
"Greece must learn that it cannot get anywhere with provocations," he continued. "The latest long-range missile test is very important and shows the level our defence industry has reached. Our last test was against Tayfun, which drove the Greeks crazy."
"In the next step they will increase its range. That is more than 561 kilometers. Of course, the Greeks were afraid, as Athens is also within its range," Erdoğan declared, before speaking of "good news" regarding the new Cenk and Gezgin missiles.
The Turkish leader also spoke about the "national" fighter aircraft, which - as he claimed - "will come out of the hangar in 2023", while the first Turkish frigate will also be commissioned, which "will strengthen our power in the seas."
Erdoğan referred to the role of Eastern Thrace in the energy map of the region, saying that it is on the "agenda" of the discussions with Russia, with which they cooperate closely for the construction and operation of the nuclear power plants of Akkuyu and Sinope.
Speaking about the discovery of natural gas in the Black Sea, he spoke of the Sakarya field, which - according to him - is estimated at 540 billion cubic metres.
He emphasised that with the means acquired by Turkey, seismographic, drilling ships, etc., it can carry out its own investigations in the Black Sea and the Mediterranean and cooperate for the same purpose with other countries, referring to Libya.
"We will do our drilling in the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, but we have the capabilities with our ships to go to third countries that have gas fields to drill and extract the gas and together sell it to other countries," Erdoğan said, making it known that there is interest from Libya.
"Proposals are coming in this direction from various countries. First in line is Libya. They tell us that we can enter into this kind of cooperation," the Turkish president continued.
Turkey's intentions to "put a foot" south of Crete and in areas of the illegal Turkish-Libyan Pact, is in complete contrast to the recent clear position of the UN and the US on the strategies of Ankara and the interim Libyan government in Tripoli.
READ MORE: Turkish FM Çavuşoğlu threatens Greece: “Athens knows very well what it means to oppose Ankara.”
