Eastern Mediterranean

The Greek side must remain devoted to its line, ring the alarm bells when necessary, and come to the table of exploratory talks with determination.

It was the 61st round of such talks, which commenced in 2002, when George Papandreou was foreign minister, and were abruptly terminated in 2016 after an abortive coup against Erdogan

The addition of the French war planes to the Greek Air Force fleet has been touted as giving the Greek Air Force a strategic boost in its deterrent force amid Turkish threats.

Though both sides have long declared publicly that they wish to resume talks, their views on the agenda and limits of such a dialogue are diametrically opposed.

American intervention can protect the status quo in the Eastern Mediterranean and effectively prod Greece and Turkey to return to the negotiating table on an equal footing,

Turkey was well aware of the cost to Greece of being on constant military alert and hoped that this would break Athens' resistance and force it to retreat and accept Ankara's claims.

In Turkey, his sacking of his son-in-law and finance minister, Berat Albayrak, showS that Edogan will not hesitate to sacrifice even family members in order to stay in power.

Each time Erdoagn pushed the envelope a bit further because he knew that although Greece was complaining strongly the EU would not significantly change its posture.

If Donald Trump is defeated in next week’s US presidential elections Ankara may well escalate its provocations in the Eastern Mediterranean in order to instigate a military incident.

To justify his military intervention on many fronts Erdogan says that he is is guided by the Ottoman past, but he is in fact reviving the catastrophic, expansionist Nazi theory of lebensraum.

'It is my firm hope that the underlying disputes between two allies can now be addressed purely though negotiations in the spirit of allied solidarity and international law,” Nato's chief said.

In a break with US diplomatic custom that if a Secretary of State visits Greece he or she will also visit Turkey and vice versa, Pompeo decided to visit only Greece, a move viewed as a stern message to Ankara,

'We have the issue of security and stability in the Eastern Mediterranean which is not the affair of Greece and Cyprus alone but an EU issue,' Michel said

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has repeatedly declared that dialogue is inconceivable before Turkey withdraws its forces from the area. He clearly ruled out the concept of diplomacy at gunpoint.

In addition MED7 leaders urged Greece and Turkey to dialogue. The seven leaders led by Emmanuel Macron are not prepared to accept Turkish hegemony in the Mediterranean.

The strategy of pursuing closer ties with France was vindicated in 1979 when French president Valerie Giscard D’Estaing passionately supported Greece’s accession to the European Economic Community (EEC)

As accustomed as one may be to such actions by Turkey, they still offer a foretaste of what may happen if the limits are surpassed.

In a tweet on the 27 conversation Trump’s spokesman John Deere said, 'President Trump also highlighted the importance of Turkey and Greece resolving their disagreements in the eastern Mediterranean.'

Erdogan is standing by his pledge to provide military support to the government of Tripoli which is internationally recognised but controls only the capital.

The leader of Turkey loses no opportunity to display his aggressiveness. Yesterday he spoke about grey zones in the Aegean (Greek islands whose sovereignty Ankara disputes) and accused Greece and its allies of trying to block Turkey’s access to the sea. He announced that he will bolster Ankara’s military support for the government of Libya. Athens responds to this intransigence with the Agreement of the Four in which it is joined by Israel, Egypt, and Cyprus for the construction of the EastMed pipeline. Greece is also taking initiatives in the Middle East such as the foreign minister’s trip to Libya and Egypt yesterday. Along with these moves the government must not forget that Turkey will remain our neighbour. Hence, channels of communication must remain open not in order to make bilateral agreements on issues (mainly of sovereignty) that divide the countries and which Athens has always considered non-negotiable, but rather to make it possible for Greece and Turkey to eventually go to the International Court of Justice to resolve issues that the two sides have agreed to in advance. There are many obstacles in such a course. The Greek political class fears the political cost that reviving this issue will have. The Turkish political class, which theoretically does not rule out such an eventuality in fact places so many preconditions that make such a solution prohibitive. That does not mean that diplomacy must resign itself to the current situation and problems. A military clash would be disastrous for both countries. Greece is also taking initiatives in the Middle East such as the foreign minister’s trip to Libya and Egypt yesterday.

 Setting aside Ankara’s bellicose behaviour and territorial claims in Cyprus’ maritime zone and the Aegean, Akar maintained that Turkey supports 'good neighbourly relations, international law and mutual respect'.

The US, Russia, France, Cyprus, Israel, and most recently Italy have all underlined that the Turkey-Libya MOU is a serious threat to regional stabilit,

The Greek readout indicated that both leaders agreed on the need to deepen exceptionally good bilateral relations.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was the first foreign leader to call and congratulate Mitsotakis, even before the final results were in.

'Greece is a sovereign country that is in a position to defend its sovereign rights. There is no scenario under which a [Turkish drilling ship] will drill in the Greek continental shelf because that will be blocked.'