Greece intensifies diplomatic offensive to counter Turkish aggression

Greece is responding to the barrage of aggressive statements from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other Turkish officials by sending letters to all members of the UN Security Council, to Secretary General Antonio Guterres, and to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, Foreign Ministry sources said Monday. 

According to the same sources, the letters simply quote the original statements by Turkish officials, without any further comment. These are so “outrageous” that no further comment is necessary, the sources said. 

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias has thanked his Czech counterpart Jan Lipavsky for the reaction of the Czech presidency of the European Union to Erdogan’s latest rant against Greece.

“Unacceptable threatening of EU member states, like the one addressed to Greece in President Erdogan’s recent public speech, is extremely unhelpful in this regard,”the Czech Foreign Ministry tweeted Saturday.

Speaking at an aerial technology festival in the Black Sea city of Samsun where Turkey showcased the prototype of an unmanned fighter jet earlier Saturday, Erdogan threatened Greece to “come down suddenly one night.”

“Your occupying the islands does not bind us. When the time, the hour, comes, we will do what is necessary,” Erdogan said.