Greek Prime Minister: "No War with Turkiye... Will Resolve Through Dialogue"

Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Prime Minister of Greece. Photo by AFP

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Ji-eun] Amid rising military tensions between Greece and T?rkiye surrounding the Aegean Sea, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has expressed his intention to resolve the issues through dialogue rather than war with T?rkiye.

Prime Minister Mitsotakis made these remarks on the 19th (local time) while attending the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF, Davos Forum) held in Davos, Switzerland.

On that day, during a conversation with Fareed Zakaria, host of CNN's international affairs program, at the Davos Forum conference hall, he stated, "We can resolve the boundary issues in the Aegean Sea and the Eastern Mediterranean maritime zones with Turkey in a reasonable manner."

He added, "Due to the geographical characteristics of the Aegean Sea, frictions with T?rkiye have become complicated, but we have resolved similar issues with countries like Italy and Egypt."

Greece and T?rkiye are both members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), but have experienced frictions over sovereignty of islands in the Aegean Sea and exploration of Mediterranean resources.

Earlier, in December last year, tensions deepened when Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an made remarks threatening Greece with missiles.

At that time, he announced that T?rkiye had started developing short-range ballistic missiles and said, "The Greeks say these ballistic missiles can attack Athens, and of course they can."

Regarding T?rkiye's provocations, Prime Minister Mitsotakis commented, "I hope unnecessary provocations against neighbors can be avoided as long as issues can be resolved according to international law, and it would be good to keep communication channels open."

T?rkiye and Greece have long been at odds since World War I. After the war, Greece, as a victorious country, acquired several islands in the Aegean Sea in 1923, making most of the islands off the coast of the Turkish mainland Greek territory. Since then, the two countries have had multiple disputes over sovereignty issues, and there have been three occasions when they came close to war.