ATHENS: Greece’s government has written to the country’s NATO and European Union partners and the head of the United Nations, asking them to formally condemn increasingly aggressive talk by officials in neighboring Turkey and suggesting that current bilateral tensions could escalate into a second open conflict on European soil.
In the letters, copies of which were seen Wednesday by AP, Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias said the behavior of his country’s historic regional rival — and NATO ally — should be censured by the three bodies. “By not doing so in time or by underestimating the seriousness of the matter, we risk witnessing again a situation similar to that currently unfolding in some other part of our continent,” he wrote, in an allusion to the war in Ukraine. “This is something none of us would really wish to see.” The letters dated Monday and Tuesday come at a low point in relations between the two neighbors, who are separated by centuries-long enmity and contemporary disputes, including Aegean Sea boundaries and immigration. Greece and Turkey have come close to war three times in the last half-century. On Tuesday Turkey’s president reiterated a thinly veiled invasion threat made over the weekend. Athens responded that it’s ready to defend its sovereignty. In the letters to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, EU foreign policy head Josep Borrell and UN chief Antonio Guterres, Athens quoted Erdogan’s references to Greek “occupation” of Aegean Sea islands that have been part of Greece for decades, and to the Greek people as “vile.” –Agencies
