Dozens of delegates walked out as Benjamin Netanyahu took the UN podium. The Israeli prime minister responded by calling them “moral cowards,” defended Israel’s conduct in Gaza and opened new fronts with Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Qatar and New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani. But his speech had another audience far beyond the General Assembly hall: Israeli voters, just weeks before the October 27 election.
Speaking on Action 24, Adonis Georgiadis connected three fronts: Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ message to Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the UN, Greece’s deepening strategic relationship with Israel, and the striking reversal in Europe, where Greece’s reform experience is now being discussed in Germany. His warning on the economy was equally clear: geopolitical disorder is once again feeding directly into oil, energy and the cost of living.
A hard geopolitical message from New York: Benjamin Netanyahu rejected Damascus’ claims over the Golan Heights, defended Israel’s war against Iran and took aim at Turkey and Qatar, as dozens of delegations walked out of the UN General Assembly hall.
Dialogue with Ankara, but firmly anchored in international law and UNCLOS: Kyriakos Mitsotakis presented Greece at the United Nations as a force for stability in the Eastern Mediterranean, put Cyprus back at the heart of the international-law debate and linked the Aegean, maritime security and regional geopolitics into a single strategic narrative.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan called for disputes in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean to be resolved through international law, while in the same UN speech he again demanded international recognition of the breakaway entity in northern Cyprus and insisted on the “sovereign equality” of Turkish Cypriots.
Despite public expectations that Donald Trump and Recep Tayyip Erdogan would meet on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, no formal bilateral appears on the U.S. president’s announced schedule. That does not rule out a brief pull-aside or an encounter at a leaders’ reception, but as of now there is no confirmed official Trump–Erdogan summit in New York.
Athens arrives in New York with a dual message for Ankara: communication channels should remain open, but there will be no discussion over “grey zones,” the demilitarisation of Greek islands or other issues Greece regards as matters of sovereignty. Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis reiterates that the delimitation of the continental shelf and Exclusive Economic Zone is the only Greek-Turkish dispute that can be referred to international jurisdiction.
Ankara is raising the temperature again ahead of the expected resumption of survey work for the Great Sea Interconnector. Hakan Fidan’s deliberately ambiguous warning could refer to the Greece–Cyprus electricity cable, a potential extension of Greek territorial waters around Kastellorizo, or the deployment of new defensive systems on the eastern Aegean islands. Athens, however, is signaling that a “Kasos 2” cannot unfold under the same conditions: France now has a direct stake in the project, Nexans is central to its implementation, and Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Emmanuel Macron have already coordinated on the next steps.
From Silicon Valley and Stanford to New York and the UN, Kyriakos Mitsotakis is embarking on a US visit with a dual agenda: investment and technology on the one hand, and Greek-Turkish relations, Cyprus and high-level diplomacy on the other. No meeting with Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been scheduled, but Athens is keeping the door open.
A new escalation in Turkish rhetoric over the Aegean: Turkish media are placing Israeli-made Barak MX systems, Greek islands and Kastellorizo in the same strategic frame, reviving demilitarization claims and directly linking Greece’s “Achilles Shield” to the wider confrontation over maritime zones and the “Blue Homeland” doctrine.
Athens is reaffirming in the clearest terms its sovereign right to extend its territorial waters to 12 nautical miles, stressing that both the timing and manner of exercising that right are decisions for Greece alone. Government spokesperson Pavlos Marinakis also linked this position to Greece’s formal diplomatic démarche to Turkey, signalling that Athens is moving beyond rhetoric and putting its legal position formally on record.
Energy Minister Stavros Papastavrou says Greece will not seek Turkey’s approval to exercise its sovereign rights, while outlining a three-year strategy built around renewables, storage, island interconnections and self-consumption to reduce the country’s dependence on natural gas and external energy shocks.
Israeli Navy chief Vice Adm. Eyal Harel has warned actors seeking to alter the balance of power in the Mediterranean and Red Sea that Israel is watching and preparing. He did not explicitly name Turkey, but Israeli media interpreted the message as a clear warning to Ankara at a time when Israel, Greece and Cyprus are deepening their strategic and defense ties.
Athens says the conditions do not yet exist for a special agreement with Turkey as long as Ankara seeks to bring sovereignty issues into the discussion. Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis reasserts Greece’s unilateral right to extend its territorial waters to 12 nautical miles, places the Greece–Cyprus electricity link within a European and international legal framework, and rejects claims that dialogue with Turkey amounts to retreat.
Deputy Foreign Minister Tasos Hatzivassiliou described Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ visit to Kastellorizo as highly symbolic, sending a direct message to Turkey: Greece will not accept any challenge to its sovereignty and does not need anyone’s permission to visit any part of its territory.
The Greek prime minister’s visit to the remote Aegean island carries a powerful sovereignty message to Ankara. Maritime zones, Turkish NAVTEX notices, defense buildup and the Greece–Cyprus power cable are bringing tensions back to the surface, as Turkish media portray the trip as a “provocation.”
Athens hardens its message without closing the door to dialogue: George Gerapetritis says Greece has “all scenarios ready,” rules out any discussion on demilitarizing the islands, insists on Greece’s unilateral right to extend territorial waters to 12 nautical miles and says the cable project will move forward.
EEZs, Libya, the Mecca Pact and Sinai will dominate the September 8 meeting – Greece wants Cairo–Ankara normalization without a strategic shift in the Eastern Mediterranean
Greece rejects Turkey’s maritime claims, takes the dispute to its European partners and simultaneously strengthens military deterrence as tensions rise again in the Aegean
Turkey launches a direct attack on EU institutions over Cyprus, defends its 1974 military intervention and accuses Brussels of abandoning neutrality at a sensitive moment in EU–Turkey relations
Turkey’s Sabah brands Adonis Georgiadis’ remarks “provocative” and “arrogant” after he defended the Achilles Shield and Greece’s strategic partnership with Israel — exposing Ankara’s growing unease over Athens’ new deterrence architecture.
