Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan made a speech at the “Symposium on International Maritime Law and the Eastern Mediterranean in terms of History, Politics and International Relations” in Istanbul.

Addressing the Symposium President Erdoğan said: “We can resolve the problems in the Mediterranean not by excluding each other, but by gathering all the regional actors around the same table. Equations in which Turkey and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus are not fairly included cannot yield a Pax Mediterranea.”

“It is our priority that disagreements be solved on the basis of international law and in line with fairness,” President Erdoğan emphasised, adding that Turkey, in this regard, stands ready without any precondition for dialogue with Greece.

Drawing attention to the importance of holding an energy cooperation forum which will bring together all the parties, including the Turkish Cypriots, in the Eastern Mediterranean, President Erdoğan said: “Regarding this issue, we act with self-confidence arising from our rightness in terms of both international law and maritime law. We have never compromised our calm stance despite the provocations of Greece and the Greek Cypriot side. We have declared it to the entire world that we will not succumb to the language of threat, pressure and blackmail in the Eastern Mediterranean. All the attempts aimed at surrounding our country from the seas failed. Turkey has made it clear that it will defend the Turkish Cypriots’ rights for all time, together with its own rights.”