Μake us preferred on Google Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday, in response to a press question, said Greece is not an enemy of Turkey but rather its neighbor and NATO ally, while stressing that bilateral relations are too sensitive and important to be turned into domestic political campaign material.
Speaking to Turkish reporters aboard the presidential aircraft and following his address and participation at the 81st UN General Assembly in New York, Erdogan said Ankara had no interest in becoming involved in Greece’s domestic politics.
“Elections are held in Greece, governments change, the opposition changes. These are not our concern,” he said.
“Turkey is not Greece’s enemy, but its neighbor and ally under the NATO umbrella,” he said, according to the remarks reported in Turkey.
The comments came shortly after Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, also in New York for the UN General Assembly, said he would call for the continuation of Greek-Turkish dialogue on the basis of respect for international law and the principles of good-neighborly relations in his expected address to the General Assembly.
Mitsotakis has also repeatedly maintained that the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) provides the institutional framework for resolving what Athens considers the two countries’ sole outstanding dispute, concerning the delimitation of the continental shelf and exclusive economic zone (EEZ).
Athens has also stressed that dialogue cannot coexist with unilateral actions that violate international law or threats of war over the exercise of legal rights.
