Dendias will raise the issue of Turkey’s escalating illegal conduct towards Greece at a teleconference between EU foreign ministers and there will be discussion of Ankara's ongoing illegal activities in Cyprus’ EEZ.
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.
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.
On the purely symbolic level, however, the joint visit of Von der Leyen, European Council Co-President Charles Michel, and European Parliament President David Sassoli was intended as a message to Turkey and migrants that the EU is prepared to guard its borders.
Lakkotrypis said that despite Turkish threats and an invasion of Cyprus’ EEZ Nicosia is continually attracting new companies and promoting its interests.
'Force will be used against those violating the ceasefire, including radicals, and every measure will be taken,,' Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar said.
'It is imperative that the international law of the sea, the principle of good neighbourly relations and the sovereignty and sovereign rights over the maritime zones of all neighbouring coastal states, including those generated by their islands, need to be respected,'Josep Borrell stated on behalf of the Commission.
During Greece’s great economic depression France’s pro-greek stance vis a vis a prospective Grexit was decisive.
Mitsotakis accused Erdogan of using migrants and refugees as leverage to implement his geopolitical designs, as Ankara is threatening to unleash a new wave of refugees and migrants to Europe.
Confronted with escalating Turkish provocations Greece must counter with an agreed upon, comprehensive national strategy. One must build new alliances that are based on strong foundations.
The Greek government has offered to send a peace-keeping force once the internecine conflict has ended. That would reportedly involve sending a ship to Libya to help manage the migrant crisis.
France issued its own separate statement backing Greece’s position that the Libya-Turkey accord is null and void.
Can any US or EU involvement be effective and if not to what degree can Greece handle a protracted crisis with a hostile neighbour who has no compunction about making fresh demands at every opportunity?
President Trump praised Greece’s efforts to exit the crisis and the PM’s good work but when called upon to respond to the provocations of his “friend” Recep Tayyip Erdogan he acted as if he hadn’t heard.
While Trump was mocked in some international press outlets when he said he feels he personally knows all three million Greek-Americans – there are something under 1.5 million, with many wealthy supporters and major donors to his campaign
In contrast with the State Department Trump avoided any criticism of Turkey for its intervention in Libya or on the Libya-Turkey EEZ accord that expropriates large swathes of Greece’s EEZ.
Mitsotakis’ key argument in seeking clear and public US support for Athens (including the area of defence) is that Greece is the sole anchor of stability in a volatile region.
The pipeline will provide natural gas to Greek regions that do not have access to the national network such as Crete, the Peloponnese, and Western Greece.
Ankara is claiming half of all of Cyprus' natural resources, despite the fact that the Turkish-Cypriots comprised on 20 percent of the island’s overall population at the time of the 1974 Turkish occupation.