“The Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean are issues on which Turkey will never back off,” Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said emphatically in an interview with Qatar’s newspaper “The Peninsula”, which he visited yesterday.
As reported by ethnos.gr, the Turkish president once again claimed that Turkey has always been in favor of a fair distribution of wealth in the Eastern Mediterranean with all coastal states.
“We have emphasized this in all our diplomatic initiatives. However, countries – and especially Greece – that were annoyed by the presence of Turkey, showed a behavior with unilateral steps that caused tension. “The reason for the behavior of colonial France, which incites both Greece and the Greek-Cypriot administration of Southern Cyprus and now of Armenia, is the active role that Turkey has taken on in the region,” said Recep Tayyip Erdoğan considering that France is again behind the EEZ problem in the Eastern Mediterranean.
“The issue of the Aegean and the Mediterranean is an issue that Turkey will never take a step back. We have stated it on every platform with the highest tone that Turkey and the TRNC, which they are unaware of, will never accept any solution that will imprison them on its shores and we will continue to declare it.” We will resolutely continue to protect and defend our rights and interests at all times and under all circumstances,” he said, referring to Greece and saying that Ankara had accepted the dialogue following Ankara’s determination.
“We forced Greece to sit at the table”
“Those who saw our determination in the Eastern Mediterranean and realized that they could not make our country back off with hollow threats and blackmail, finally accepted our calls for dialogue. We know well that we are right according to the international law. And all the steps we take in this direction on the issue of the Mediterranean are made within the framework of the principle of win-win, in order to serve peace and tranquillity as well as the protection first of all of our own interests, but also the interests of all Mediterranean countries,” he said.
