“Turkey must stop provocations” against EU member-states, says Tsipras

“Turkey must stop provocations” against EU member states, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said during a press conference after the EU Summit in Brussels on Friday. The European Union should send Turkey a clear message that “EU-Turkish relations cannot move forward when member-states’ sovereign rights are violated,” he added.

Turkey and Greece can collaborate on several sectors in the future only if Turkey respects international law in the Aegean and the East Mediterranean, Tsipras stressed.

The Greek PM said he and the president of the Republic of Cyprus, Nicos Anastasiades, had briefed European partners on Turkey’s provocative actions in the Cyprus EEZ and the Aegean, including “the recent unacceptable and extremely dangerous incident at (the) Imia (islet), and the overall rising transgressive behaviour by air and sea during the past year.”

The Greek PM also noted he and Anastasiades had received substantial support from the EU, and referred to the European Council President Donald Tusk’s expression of solidarity to both countries, during a press conference following the summit.

“In the near future, Ankara must take into serious account the fact that Greece is a member state of the EU, and of NATO – of which Turkey is also a member – therefore the policy of provocation leads nowhere, and undermines Turkey itself,” Tsipras said.

Greece will continue to “keep the doors of dialogue open, but it must be clearly understood there are also limits to that.”

FYROM name issue

Greece “is in no hurry” to resolve the issue, Tsipras said following the informal EU summit meeting, adding that was “a Greek initiative to resolve an issue that burdens Greece’s foreign policy, especially when the country has to deal with real threats.”

A viable solution must be found that is based on solid foundations, the premier said, and this is the reason he initiated contact with FYROM prime minister Zoran Zaev at the World Economic Forum in Davos recently, to initiate that dialogue.

Resolving the name issue is a lot more urgent for FYROM and its European future, Tsipras noted. “For us it would be a positive development, but for FYROM (becoming an EU member) would be of vital importance,” and its European prospects “do not go through Ankara, they go through Athens; our neighbours must understand that,” he stressed.

When a solution to the name issue nears, he said to a question by the Athens-Macedonian News Agency (ANA), the government will decided how to brief Greek political leaders and “allow the expression of views in all institutionally provided ways, which, at the end of the day, will be set on record in Parliament.” via amna