Athens pushed back sharply against Ankara on Thursday after Turkey’s Foreign Ministry objected to Greece’s deployment of a Patriot air defense missile system on the island of Karpathos.

Greek Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Lana Zochiou called Turkey’s claims legally unfounded, saying that “unilateral claims about the demilitarization of the Aegean islands are baseless and have been repeatedly rejected in their entirety.”

“The status of the Greek islands of the Eastern Aegean is governed by the 1923 Peace Treaty of Lausanne, the 1936 Montreux Convention, and the 1947 Paris Peace Treaty — to which, notably, Turkey is not even a signatory. These treaties leave no doubt about the status of the islands. Greece’s defensive disposition is non-negotiable. The state of war in our wider neighborhood makes the necessary defensive preparation of the country imperative. The prevailing uncertainty and the risk of further escalation of the war call for prudence and composure — not powerless posturing” Zochiou said,

Turkey’s Objections

Turkey, for its part, revived the issue of the demilitarization of the Aegean islands. The Turkish Foreign Ministry’s spokesman, Oncu Keceli, claimed in a post on X that “the objective legal status of the eastern Aegean islands and the Dodecanese, placed under non-military status within the framework of the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne and the 1947 Treaty of Paris, is not a matter open to discussion.”

Keceli also pointed a finger at what he described as bad-faith actors on the margins of the two countries’ relationship. “Under these circumstances, it is not surprising that some circles, which try at every opportunity to poison our bilateral relations with our NATO ally Greece, are attempting another fait accompli,” he said.

He also referenced the situation in Cyprus, asserting that Turkish Cypriots are capable of ensuring their own security with Ankara’s support.