Athens welcomes Kalin comments on East Med operations
Greece on Tuesday welcomed comments by Turkey’s presidential spokesman who said that Turkey could temporarily suspend energy-exploration operations in the Eastern Mediterranean pending talks with Greece.
Speaking on Skai TV, government spokesman Stelios Petsas said that the comments by Ibrahim Kalin “indicate that an illegal – as we have described it – Navtex is being withdrawn.”
He said Greece had made clear it expected Turkey to make actual steps to de-escalate tensions in the region.
Petsas said that exploratory talks between the two Aegean neighbors have been interrupted on Turkey’s responsibility and noted that issues such as Ankara’s activity in the Eastern Mediterranean, the Turkey-Libya memorandum and the Hagia Sophia decision create problems.
“Should actions of this sort continue, there will be no basis for dialogue,” he said.
