Defense Minister Hulusi Akar held a meeting with his Greek counterpart Nikolaos Panagiotopoulos on the sidelines of a NATO summit in Brussels on Thursday amid ongoing tensions between Türkiye and Greece.
The meeting between the two ministers comes as the two countries disagree on a number of issues, including the Eastern Mediterranean, Cyprus, migrant pushbacks and more.
Both ministers were in Brussels to attend the Meeting of NATO Ministers of Defence.
Akar recently said Turkish forces were instructed to take action against Greek violations. He noted that the naval and air forces have been given clear instructions on doing what is necessary regarding Greece’s violations of islands with demilitarized status, as Athens has been violating it since 1956.
The two uneasy NATO neighbors have long-standing sea and air boundary disputes which lead to near-daily air force patrols and interception missions mostly around Greek islands near Türkiye’s coastline.
Türkiye, a NATO member, has often criticized the military alliance, including the United States, for not supporting it enough on its territorial dispute with Greece on islands in the Aegean and the issue of exploration of hydrocarbons in the Eastern Mediterranean.
Since the beginning of 2022, Greek warplanes have violated Turkish airspace 256 times and harassed Turkish jets on 158 occasions. Greek coast guard boats also violated Turkish territorial waters 33 times.
Moreover, Ankara says Athens is stationing troops on islands in the Aegean Sea in violation of peace treaties signed after World Wars I and II. But, Athens claims it needs to "defend the islands" – many of which lie close to its NATO ally Türkiye's coast.
Meanwhile, Akar also held discussions with his American counterpart Lloyd James Austin, German counterpart Christine Lambrecht, French counterpart Sebastien Lecornu and British counterpart Ben Wallace.
