A few hours before the meeting of the Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis with the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the framework of the UN General Assembly in New York, the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Turkish Parliament, Fuat Oktay, once again warned Greece not to attempt to exercise the legal right to extend territorial waters in the Aegean.
Speaking to CNN Türk, the close associate of Erdoğan and former vice president of the Turkish government, reiterated that a possible increase to 12 nautical miles by Greece is a Casus Belli.
"Increase at 12 n.m. on the islands in the Aegean Sea. We are told that there must be an understanding of expanding territorial waters. But we have already declared this as a cause of war," said Oktay, referring to the decision of the Turkish National Assembly in 1995.
The president of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Turkish parliament also referred to the annual report of the European Parliament, which warned Turkey that if it does not drastically change its course, the process of joining the EU cannot continue, but also to the international reactions to the reopening of the Hagia Sophia as a Muslim mosque.
"What does the issue with Hagia Sophia have to do with it?" asked Oktay, continuing in a provocative tone: "They find it disturbing that Hagia Sophia has opened: What does this have to do with it? We will ask you."
Those who call on Turkey to recognise the ecumenical role and character of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Istanbul did not escape the shots of Erdoğan's close associate.
"They say ;you have to accept that the Patriarchate is Ecumenical''. What exhibition is this? So, they want Turkey to accept a Vatican-like structure? That is an institution of the Turkish Republic, and it has been determined under what conditions it will be administered. Suppose you want this to be managed with a structure like the Vatican and include the Hagia Sophia's opening in the issues. In that case, this is against the principle of neutrality," he concluded.
Last January, from the position of the then vice president of the Turkish government, Oktay had directly threatened Greece with an intervention in the Aegean islands.
"Turkey does not speak words of the air - When we shout we will come one night suddenly, we will do it," he had declared, in the context of the pro-war climate of those days, against our country.
