“We are also preparing for military involvement,” said Greece’ Defense minister, Nikos Panagiotopoulos on Thursday in a clear message to Turkey and its planned drilling for oil and gas south of the three Greek islands of Crete, Rhodes and Karpathos.
Speaking to Skai TV prime time news, Panagiotopoulos said that Greece is even ready for military action to defend its sovereign rights.
“We don’t want to get there, but we want to make it clear that we will do whatever it takes to defend our sovereign rights to the fullest extent possible,” the Minister stressed.
He said that Turkey’s recent behavior “is quite aggressive.”
“I believe that the only way for Greece to deal with this behavior, which generally has an increasing tendency to aggression, is on one hand to exhaust all its diplomatic weapons and on the other hand to ensure an increase in the deterrent power of the Armed Forces,” Panagiotopoulos underlined.
“Of all the possibilities, of course, military involvement is included. We do not want to go there, but we want to make it clear that we will do whatever it takes to defend our sovereign rights to the fullest extent possible,” the Greek Defense Minister said.
Earlier in a press conference in Ankara, President Tayyip Erdogan, along with Libyan Prime Minister Fayez al-Saraj, of the Libyan National Coalition (GNA), said that Ankara and Libya would continue oil exploration in the Mediterranean.
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It looks like Erdogan will finally get the war he is so anxiously begging for.
Both countries have now admitted to being commited to armed conflict. One to pirate and the other in defense.
War seems inevitable short of a greater power’s intervention to cower Turkey into retreat because Greece certainbly won’t give up her soverignty under any circumstances. Especially after Turkey’s illegal invasion and illegal occupation of Cyprus over the last 40 years.
I’m glad Greece that Greece is defending itself on a united front than devisve policieas that influenced its finances and even historic name, to even Cyrpus decades ago. This is one red line that no one can cross, thank God.