Turkey is in favor of dialogue to solve problems with Greece but some Greek politicians escalate tensions for the sake of their personal and political ambitions, Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said Tuesday.
Speaking at the NATO Parliamentary Assembly Political Committee’s meeting in Istanbul, the defense minister noted that Turkey is sincere in its intentions to solve ongoing issues with Greece, including maritime disputes, military exercises and others through peaceful means.
“The problems between the two countries cannot be solved without talks, meetings, visits and dialogue. We want dialogue,” Akar said.
He continued by saying that some Greek politicians “unfortunately” escalate tensions for the sake of their own ambitions.
Akar also criticized Greece for discussing Turkey-Greece problems with the European Union rather than Ankara.
“They try to make it seem like our bilateral issues are the issues of the EU, the U.S. or NATO,” he said, adding that including third parties in the problem will not help solve it.
Turkey is demanding that Greece demilitarize its eastern islands, maintaining that action is required under 20th-century treaties that ceded sovereignty of the islands to Greece.
The Greek government calls the demand a deliberate misinterpretation and has accused Turkey, a fellow NATO member, of stepping up hostile actions in the area.
Starting with the Treaty of London in 1913, the militarization of the eastern Aegean islands was restricted and their demilitarized status was confirmed with the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923. The Lausanne pact established a political balance between the two countries by harmonizing vital interests, including those in the Aegean.
The 1947 Treaty of Paris, which ceded the Dodecanese islands from Italy to Greece, also confirmed their demilitarized status.
However, Greece argues that the 1936 Montreux Convention on the Turkish Straits should be applied in this case, while Ankara says Greece's obligation to disarm the islands remains unchanged under the Montreux Convention, highlighting that there is no provision that differentiates it from the Treaty of Lausanne on the issue.
Turkey, which has the longest continental coastline in the Eastern Mediterranean, has rejected maritime boundary claims made by EU members Greece and the Greek Cypriot administration, stressing that these excessive claims violate the sovereign rights of both Turkey and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC). Both sides cite a range of treaties and international agreements from over the decades to support their conflicting territorial claims.
Turkey has also decried Greek violations of the rights of its Muslim and Turkish minorities, from closing down mosques and shutting down schools to not letting Muslim Turks elect their own religious leaders.
Under a 2008 European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) ruling, Western Thracian Turks' right to use the word "Turkish" in the names of associations was guaranteed, but Athens has failed to implement the ruling, effectively banning the Turkish identity in the country.
Greece's Western Thrace region is home to a Muslim Turkish community of around 150,000.
