Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said on Friday that he underlined the need for further dialogue between Türkiye and Greece during his meeting with his Greek counterpart a day earlier.
Tension has risen in recent months between Greece and Türkiye, fellow members of the NATO defense alliance, which have long feuded over maritime borders and energy exploration rights in the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean Seas.
On the sidelines of a NATO defense ministers summit in Brussels, Akar held a meeting with his Greek counterpart Nikolaos Panagiotopoulos.
Akar told reporters in Brussels that he told Panagiotopoulos that problems can be resolved through international law, good neighborly relations, peaceful means and dialogue. “At the meeting, I emphasized the importance of meeting more frequently and increasing dialogue within the framework of good neighborly relations.”
Akar also underlined that the two countries must solve their problems on their own.
Greece is often rallying the EU to take action against Türkiye due to bilateral disputes.
“It should be essential to resolve issues between Türkiye and Greece without the need for any third party intervention.”
Akar noted that exploratory talks between the two Mediterranean countries have stopped for a while and that these must be revived again.
“We believe that these works can start in the upcoming period. Our delegations went to Athens twice as part of the Confidence Building Measures Meeting. The Greek delegation came to Türkiye once. Therefore, we expressed that we expect the Greek delegation to come to Ankara for the fourth meeting. We hope to start such dialogues in the coming days."
Speaking on the involvement of third countries in bilateral disputes with Greece, Akar said that Ankara expects the EU to look at issues through the perspective of international law, reason and objectivity, rather than just solidarity.
“Everyone should know that taking sides will contribute not to the solution of issues, but to deadlock."
Akar was referring to a recent EU report on Türkiye that Ankara criticized for favoring Greece while ignoring the rights and views of Türkiye and the Turkish Cypriots.
The European Union reflects the illegal and maximalist views of Greece and the Greek Cypriots in its recent report on Türkiye, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday.
Describing the European Commission's report as "far from a strategic view and visionless," the ministry, in a written statement, said that the responsibilities to candidate country Türkiye were overlooked while a double-standard approach was adopted.
Saying that the situation in the Eastern Mediterranean has “again become tenser,” the European Commission said that “Türkiye must respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all EU member states.”
Türkiye in recent months has stepped up criticism of Greece stationing troops on islands in the Eastern Aegean, near the Turkish coast and in many cases visible from shore while the two countries have also traded accusations of airspace violations in recent weeks.
