The airing of grievances came as tensions flared again between Turkey and the EU after a Turkish seismic survey ship on Monday returned to disputed waters from which it had withdrawn last month to allow for diplomacy
Suleyman Soylu saidf the 1,000 special forces that Ankara has for weeks stationed at the Gree-Turkish border for hours one day used live fire and lobbed gas bombs onto Greek territory.
Erdogan’s court was rife with scandals. He gave himself a 1mn dollar monthly salary, his assets were said to be worth nearly one billion dollars, and he provoked everyone.
Even if the EU does decide to offer more money, it’s not clear it will be sufficient to assuage Turkey or be the kind of support that Ankara, which is simultaneously involved in conflicts in Syria and Libya, really wants.
Families started bonfires as the sound of crying babies blended with the muezzin’s call to prayer blasting from a towering white mosque.
'It is so dishonest of Erdogan. We cannot let ourselves be blackmailed so any new money must not come too soon. But we will probably have to pay eventually. What else can we do?' an EU diplomat told Reuters.
'Greece cannot and should not on its own shoulder the burden of what is essentially an EU-wide problem,' Mitsotakis said.
Given the situation and the confluence of events Mitsotakis cannot be a mere observer at his first summit.
Under the current regime those applying for asylum (the vast majority of migrants) must wait for at least a year-and-a-half for the procedure to commence.
There were over 7,000 new arrivals by land and sea in August, the highest number since the implementation of the EU-Turkey Joint Statement.
As an international affairs expert has said, 'In our day and age you don’t have to declare war against a country. Carefully directed refugee flows suffice to wreak havoc.'
The greatest problem in bilateral relation are Ankara’s persistent claims against Greek sovereign rights in the Aegean and its efforts to hinder Cyprus' gas-drilling programme.
