Turkey’s top diplomat blames Greece of “lies and slander”

Turkey has prepared new complaint letters against Greece to submit to the European Union and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, said Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu.

“They lie and slander without shame. They feel politically obliged to attack Turkey every day,” Greek newspaper Kathimerini cited Cavusoglu as saying in an interview with Turkish broadcaster TV 100 on Wednesday.

“It has become an obsession with them to moan about Turkey and to make accusations against it,” the top diplomat said.

Greece and Turkey are embroiled in disputes over a string of issues, including territory, airspace, the status of Aegean islands and hydrocarbon exploration rights in Eastern Mediterranean. The two NATO allies resumed talks last year, in an effort to resolve their differences, however, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan last month announced that Ankara has halted the bilateral initiative, after Greek Premier Kyriakos Mitsotakis called on the US Congress to reject to sell F-16 fighter jets to Turkey in his visit to Washington D.C. in May. 

The two countries are also at loggerheads over Cyprus and migration issues. 

Cavusoglu indicated that the letters which will be sent to the UN and EU would seek to challenge Greece’s territorial waters and national airspace.

Turkish Foreign Minister reiterated Ankara’s claims over the demilitarization of several Eastern Aegean islands, Kathimerini said.

Also lashing out at Mitsotakis, Cavusoglu said that the Greek Prime Minister’s Washington visit was solely aimed “to accuse Turkey.”

Cavusoglu also blamed Greece for harboring terrorists, the newspaper said.