Foreign Ministry says Turkey is ‘distorting reality’
Turkey “yet again is completely distorting reality in order to support its unilateral and baseless accusations” regarding Greece’s relations with Libya and Egypt, a Foreign Ministry’s spokesperson said on Wednesday.
Alexandros Papaioannou was responding to a press question on the statements of his Turkish counterpart, Tanju Bilgiç, who said on Wednesday that Greece sought to “cover up” the incident surrounding Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias’ arrival at Tripoli airport – referred by the Turkish minister as Greece’s “latest scandal” in Libya – with the memorandum of understanding that Greece signed with Egypt on Tuesday in the fields of aeronautics and maritime search and rescue.
As reported by Turkish media, Bilgic added that search and rescue zones at sea are service areas for saving human lives, and that “these areas are not areas of sovereignty under international law.”
Papaioannou said that the “the Turkish side is trying to equate a bilateral MoU – that was entered into with full respect for international Law and international rules – with unfounded and illegal unilateral objections that violate basic principles of international law.”
He added that while Turkey is falsely accusing Greece, it continues to instrumentalize migration, “putting human lives at risk every day.” However, he noted, “it is Greece that makes every possible effort to save lives at sea.” [AMNA]
