Dendias' message to Turkey: Threats do not intimidate us

Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias sent a clear message to Turkey that "threats do not intimidate us" and that "to the threat of war we oppose the documented citation of our arguments, which are based on the International Law and the International Law of the Sea" in an interview with Parapolitika.

He also underlined that issues related to our national sovereignty are not amenable to debate or dispute.

Referring to our bilateral relations, he pointed out that in the last months, Greece has been faced with an escalating threat from Turkey, characterising as unacceptable and unthinkable the exercise of policy with the threat of the use of violence, let alone when the threat is launched by a country to an ally.

Faced with this situation, Greece has chosen to respond to this unprecedented verbal escalation of threats with calmness and determination, it does not become complacent and continues soberly to deconstruct the Turkish views and claims, without getting involved in personal disputes and characterisations, always hoping that at some point the opposite side will make the "transcendence" required, so that the two countries come to an agreement based on the International Law and the Law of the Sea.

At the same time, Dendias clarified again that constructive dialogue with Turkey is always desirable, under one inviolable condition: that it will be conducted on the basis of respect for International Law and the Law of the Sea for the only difference that is the delimitation of the Exclusive Economic Zone and of the continental shelf in the Aegean and in the Southeastern Mediterranean.

Elsewhere, Developments in Europe following Russia's invasion of Ukraine demand alertness by Europe and the global community, Dendias said in an article published in the 'Epikaira' magazine on Friday.

"The challenges of revisionism are directly related to Greece's national interests as well," he writes. "As I have shown with my three visits to Ukraine following the Russian invasion, the specific narrative and the specific way of thinking could turn the region of the East Mediterranean into a powder keg as well."

Dendias also spoke of relations with Turkey, in an escalation of provocation and challenges against Greece at a level that is unprecedented in terms of length and intensity.

For 2023, he said, Greece has chosen "the exercise of constructive and fertile foreign policy that radiates out into interdependent fields of action," including building relations both in Europe and abroad, and through global and regional organisations.

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