President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Friday that he refuses to meet with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis until the Greek leader "pulls himself together."
On relations with Greece, Erdoğan told journalists during his return from Madrid that NATO leaders at the summit had offered to mediate and organize talks with Mitsotakis.
"We said ‘sorry, but we don't have time for such a meeting right now.' Because it is obvious that they are militarizing the islands," said Erdoğan.
"Let him pull himself together. As long as he doesn't pull himself together, it is not possible for us to meet," he said.
Later in the day, Erdoğan also addressed reporters in Istanbul and said that Turkey has no desire to go to war with Greece, adding that Athens did not keep promises and violated air space 147 times.
Historic rivals Turkey and Greece have been at odds over issues ranging from overflights and the status of Aegean islands to maritime boundaries, hydrocarbon resources in the Mediterranean and the ethnically-split island of Cyprus.
Tensions flared again recently over airspace and the status of demilitarized islands in the Aegean. Erdoğan has said Mitsotakis "no longer exists for him" after the Greek premier lobbied for the United States not to sell Turkey F-16 fighter jets during a speech at the U.S. Congress.
Turkey is demanding that Greece demilitarize its eastern islands, citing the 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 from 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 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.
Turkish leaders have repeatedly stressed that Ankara favors resolving outstanding problems in the region through international law, good neighborly relations, dialogue and negotiations. Instead of opting to solve problems with Ankara through dialogue, Athens has, on several occasions, refused to sit at the negotiation table and opted to rally Brussels to take a tougher stance against Turkey.
