Turkey returns to normality: Çavuşoğlu made provocative statements about the Greek Islands

Speaking to the television network TV 100, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu directly questioned the Greek sovereignty of islands and islets in the Aegean Sea, saying: “In the Aegean there are islets and islands whose sovereignty has not been determined.

“We rightly say that they belong to us and the Greeks say that they belong to them. Then tensions arise,” he added.

The Turkish foreign minister repeated the narrative about Greek islands and islets whose legal status is supposedly not “clear” according to the Treaties of Lausanne (1923) and Paris (1947), while he also referred to the crisis of Imia in 1996, raising the issue of the extent of Greek airspace.

“Was there a crisis of Imia? Has been. Then the governments said ‘let’s start exploratory talks’. And we continued them because it was a positive step. We discuss how to solve these problems,” he said.

“But now, when they claim 10 miles of airspace over 6 miles of territorial waters, and our aircraft enters that airspace, that 4 miles, that they claim but don’t own, that’s against international law. And then they start saying ‘you violated our airspace’.”

The shots of the Turkish Foreign Minister were also directed at the President of the Republic Katerina Sakellaropoulos and the Minister of Defence Nikos Panagiotopoulos, due to their latest statements on the sad anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.

Although he emphasized that after the earthquakes relations between the two countries are in a period of normalisation, he did not rule out the possibility of “some tension” in the future.

“Now, with the earthquake, we have again entered a period of normalisation. The last time we met, we told them that a week after us you have elections. After the election is over, let’s discuss how we will resolve these issues in a more honest environment. In other words, we reached an agreement. But tomorrow there may be some tension.”

Çavuşoğlu’s provocative statements followed Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s fiesta with the TGG Anadolu crossing the Bosporus towards the Black Sea, where he announced that in the coming days the Turkish amphibious helicopter carrier will sail for the Aegean and Izmir, in order to send a “message” for the “Blue Homeland”.

Analysts estimate that Erdoğan and his government ministers seem to be bringing back the provocative and extreme rhetoric against Greece for vote-hunting reasons, pointing out that during the period between the 1st and 2nd rounds of the crucial presidential elections in Turkey (May 14-28), there should be special attention to the risk of artificial tension from Ankara.