Wanting to respond to a critical article published in The Economist, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu spoke again about the demilitarisation of Greek islands, just a week before the Turkish elections.
The Turkish Foreign Minister emphasised that "they want to have Turkey under their control, that's why we have these headlines. They tried to do the same to Orban."
In detail, Çavuşoğlu argued that: "Those abroad want Turkey to be weak and powerless, and those who want to control Turkey in every election show these titles and headlines."
"They cannot have us under their control and they want to bring to power the opposition which they control. They tried to do the same in Hungary, they united six parties with completely different political views against Orban.
"The opposition keeps accusing us. You take a normal step and they tell you why you did it. It causes some tension. In the Aegean issues, there is the issue of the status of the demilitarised islands and islets, as well as the airspace.
"I have said it in my speech in Parliament, I have asked Mr. Kılıçdaroğlu for an appointment, but he did not give me an appointment."
READ MORE: Turkish claims on demilitarising the Aegean Islands via Treaty of Lausanne are fake: Here's why.
For his part, the presidential candidate and main opponent of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, criticised the fact that the president of Turkey is instrumentalising the new ship of the Turkish Armed Forces.
"We must separate the state from the party. We currently have a one party state. The ship of the Turkish Armed Forces was turned into a pre-election vehicle of the ruling party! This is unthinkable! We are talking about weapons systems, defence industry that belong to the nation."
At the same time, Kılıçdaroğlu emphasised that "we will quickly satisfy the conditions set by the EU for visa liberalisation. As soon as we meet the conditions, I hope the EU will also lift the visa."
