Turkey's Defense Ministry fired back at Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis Thursday, issuing a statement declaring...

Turkey's Defense Ministry fired back at Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis Thursday, issuing a statement declaring that its armed forces pose no threat to any country that does not first threaten Turkey. The statement was a direct response to remarks Mitsotakis made at the Ankara NATO Summit, where he called the Turkish casus belli against Greece a "historical misspelling" and said the threat of war "does not fit the spirit of alliance." Mitsotakis went further, saying he believed the time had come to leave the casus belli behind. The Turkish Ministry of Defense pushed back without calling for its removal, instead warning that "rhetoric which could escalate tensions" would harm bilateral relations, and reminding all parties that Turkish armed forces are not a threat to anyone who does not threaten them first. The conditional framing was deliberate. Turkey's statement stopped short of renouncing the casus belli, which the Turkish parliament passed in 1995 as a warning that any Greek extension of territorial waters in the Aegean to 12 nautical miles would be considered an act of war. Separately, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told SKAI correspondent Manolis Kostidis on the sidelines of the summit that he agrees with Mitsotakis and supports continued dialogue to resolve outstanding Aegean issues. Erdogan said both countries, as NATO allies, should work to settle their disputes, with particular emphasis on maritime boundary disagreements. The exchange marks the most direct public back-and-forth between Ankara and Athens on the casus belli in years, though Turkey gave no indication it plans to formally revoke it. #GreeceTurkey #NATO #Aegean