Aksoy: “Turkey will continue to protect its own rights and those of the Turkish Cypriots in the Aegean and Mediterranean”

Turkish Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hami Aksoy criticised “unfounded” remarks made by the Foreign Minister of Greece.

“The claims and remarks of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Greece Nikos Dendias in his interview with the newspaper Eleftheros Typos, which was published yesterday (11 October), are unfounded” Foreign Ministry spokesman Hami Aksoy said in a statement.

“Exploratory talks were suspended in 2016 upon the request of Greece. Claiming that the talks were suspended on the account of Turkey is an attempt to mislead public opinion” Aksoy said.

“By the same token, the claim that a single issue is discussed within the framework of exploratory talks does not reflect the reality. These talks are aimed at resolving all interrelated issues between the two countries” he said.

“On the other hand, it is the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus which opened the coastal area of Maras for public visits, not Turkey,” the statement read.

“The Greek-Greek Cypriot duo’s claim that identifies this step as a violation of UN Security Council resolutions and that people who enter the sea there threaten international security is ridiculous and far from being serious” he added.

According to Aksoy, the attempt by Greece to use the EU as a “trump card” against Turkey instead of resolving its issues in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean through sincere dialogue with our country, is a futile endeavour.