Greek Defense Minister Panos Kammenos slammed Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan on Monday after meeting with the U.S. ambassador to Greece Geoffrey Pyatt.
Speaking with journalists outside of the country’s Ministry of National Defense, Kammenos said that “Greece respects international law, protects its national sovereignty and seeks the co-existence of all based on international rules; it does not provoke but nor does it retreat a single step from its rights as laid out by treaties and international law.”
This was in response to comments made on Sunday by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. According to Russia Today, Erdogan said on Sunday that Turkey “will not accept attempts to seize natural resources in the Eastern Mediterranean through the exclusion of Turkey and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus” as he called the Turkish-occupied territories of northern Cyprus. He added that “we will not allow bandits in the seas to roam free just like we made the terrorists in Syria pay.”
In response, Kammenos said that “the only ones who were never pirates […] are the Greeks.”
Δήλωση του ΥΕΘΑ @PanosKammenos για την αναφορά Ερντογάν σε "πειρατές της Μεσογείου" pic.twitter.com/WEY83fWX3W
— Vasilis Siriopoulos (@V_Siriopoulos) November 5, 2018
Kammenos cited the Turkish occupation of Cyprus to note that “[the Turks] hold territories which they invaded unlawfully.”
With information from A.M.N.A.
See all the latest news from Greece and the world at Greekreporter.com. Contact our newsroom to report an update or send your story, photos and videos. Follow GR on Google News and subscribe here to our daily email!
