The leader of the Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA), Greece's main opposition party, Alexis Tsipras, on Sunday, urged keeping communication channels between Türkiye and Greece open.
Tsipras argued that accidental tension can turn into an undesirable event due to a lack of communication and said, "The lack of communication channels at the moment worries me more than harsh rhetoric."
The Greek politician also evaluated the relations with Türkiye at the press conference held within the scope of the International Thessaloniki Fair.
He emphasized that there has always been tension between Türkiye and Greece, but that the tension in recent years has never been experienced before.
Tsipras said that they will take precautions because of Türkiye's rhetoric and that his expectation from Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, like every Greek citizen, is to keep the channels of dialogue with Türkiye open while protecting the country's sovereign rights.
Stating that he supported the strengthening of the Greek armed forces, Tsipras criticized the agreements made with third countries within the framework of his country's armament program on the grounds that they did not contribute to the Greek defense industry.
Noting that the frigates to be procured from France will be produced in French shipyards, Tsipras said, "While the Greek taxpayers will pay $14 billion, not a single screw will enter the Greek defense industry."
Tsipras also criticized the government led by Prime Minister Mitsotakis regarding its immigration policies.
Stressing that building a cement and barbed-wire fence in Maritsa (Meriç) could not solve the problem, Tsipras suggested that the immigrant problem is not between Türkiye and Greece, but between Türkiye and Europe.
Tsipras argued that the immigration problem can only be solved if the European Union determines a general strategy, including an approach to legal immigration.
Noting that there is a lack of employment in some sectors, including agriculture and tourism, in Greece and that Greek citizens are not very willing to work in some business branches, Tsipras said that the integration of immigrants into society within the framework of the rules to be determined by the Greek state can also be a solution to the immigrant and employment problems in the country.
The two NATO allies have long been at odds over a number of issues including offshore rights, ownership of uninhabited islets, competing for claims over jurisdiction in the Eastern Mediterranean, overlapping claims over their continental shelves, maritime boundaries, airspace, energy, the ethnically split island of Cyprus, the status of the islands in the Aegean Sea and migrants. They have come close to war three times in the past half-century, while NATO stepped in when a dispute over drilling rights for potential oil and gas deposits in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea led to a tense naval standoff in the summer of 2020.
Türkiye says Greece is stationing troops on islands in the Aegean in violation of peace treaties signed after the world wars, demanding that Greece demilitarize its eastern islands, citing the 20th-century treaties that ceded sovereignty of the islands to Greece.
Greece counters that the islands need defenses given threats of war from Türkiye, which has NATO's second-biggest military and maintains a large landing fleet on its Aegean coast.
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. These islands were required to be demilitarized under the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne and the 1947 Treaty of Paris, so any troops or weapons on the islands are strictly forbidden.
