Athens, Thursday, 10 February 2022 –
Turkey's latest proposal to demilitarize its islands was rejected by Greece on Thursday, saying it "goes beyond plain reasoning."
Earlier on Thursday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu underlined Turkey's demand that Greece demilitarize the islands, saying that if Athens does not modify its position, a discussion about the islands' sovereignty will erupt.
"We reject Turkish officials' recent charges about the status of the Aegean islands in their totality," Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexandros Papaioannou told a journalist.
"These claims are not only in violation of basic international law standards, but they also defy logic." The Greek government's view on this topic has been stated numerous times and in public."
According to Papaioannou, Greece's Permanent Representative to the United Nations has written to the Secretary General about the situation.
He also added that Greece rejects Ankara's unilateral objections to the delimitation of the continental shelf in the Eastern Mediterranean, stressing that these arguments ignore "basic precepts of international law, particularly international law of the sea."
(Research and editing by: The Decision Maker – International Relations editors)