Greece refutes reports of talks with Turkey at NATO

Diplomatic sources in Athens on Thursday refuted reports suggesting that “technical talks” and an “exchange of ideas” had taken place between officials representing Greece and Turkey at NATO headquarters in Brussels.

A Greek official did visit the office of the head of NATO’s Military Committee, the sources clarified, but that was only to submit Athens’ response to a series of proposals put forward by the alliance’s secretary-general, Jens Stoltenberg, for a “de-conflicting mechanism” to ease tension between Greece and Turkey in the Eastern Aegean.

The same sources stressed that no discussion took place with any Turkish officials within the context of that visit and dismissed reports to the opposite effect on Thursday as an attempt by Ankara to portray an image that does not correspond with reality so as to avert the possibility of sanctions.