Greece's Foreign Ministry fired back at Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Wednesday, calling it contradictory for ...

Greece's Foreign Ministry fired back at Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Wednesday, calling it contradictory for Turkey to label Greek island defenses a "threat" while simultaneously maintaining an active casus belli, a formal declaration of war, against Greece under international law. Fidan had claimed that Greece's militarization of certain Aegean islands, which Turkey argues should be demilitarized, represents a serious threat to Turkish security. He said Ankara has communicated these concerns repeatedly and considers them unresolved. Foreign Ministry spokesman Panagiotis Yiannakoulias rejected this framing entirely. He stated that Greece shapes its foreign policy "sovereignly and independently" and does not allow it to be dictated by outside pressure. He also flatly dismissed Turkish accusations that Greece is being used as a destabilizing force in the region, calling those claims completely detached from reality. On the island defense question specifically, Yiannakoulias was direct: Greece, like any sovereign state, has the right and the obligation to defend its entire territory. He added that Turkey's repeated demands for demilitarization have no legal basis in international law and have been consistently rejected by Athens. The ministry's sharpest line came in a direct inversion of Fidan's argument. Yiannakoulias said it is "not only unfounded but contradictory" to call the defense of Greek soil a threat when Turkey itself continues to maintain, in violation of international law, an active casus belli against Greece, triggered if Greece exercises its own legal sovereign rights over its territorial waters. Athens made clear it remains open to good-neighborly relations and dialogue with Turkey, but only on the condition of full respect for international law and an end to threats and baseless territorial claims. #Greece #Turkey #Aegean