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Greece on Thursday addressed the head of the United Nations with the claim that Turkey is directly challenging its sovereignty over the islands in the eastern Aegean Sea and is pursuing a hostile and “revisionist” policy that is destabilizing the region.
The four-page letter, dated May 25, addressed to Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and signed by Greece’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Maria Theofili, reads:
Greece solemnly calls on Turkey to stop questioning Greece’s sovereignty over its Aegean islands, especially through baseless and historically false claims (and) to refrain from threatening Greece with war.
Greece and Turkey have been at loggerheads over maritime borders for decades, but tensions between them escalated in 2020 following intensified oil and gas exploration in the eastern Mediterranean.
Turkey wants Greece to demilitarize its eastern islands, holding action is required under 20th-century treaties that gave the islands sovereignty to Greece.
The Greek government calls the request a deliberate misinterpretation and has accused Turkey, a NATO member, of escalating hostilities in the area.
“Extremely threatening acts by Turkey (include) repeated flights over Greek territory by fighter jets in violation of international law,” the letter said.
The Greek-Turkish dispute is mainly over oil and gas drilling rights in the eastern Mediterranean, especially around the Greek islands off the coast of Turkey.
A Turkish reconnaissance mission two years ago sparked a tense naval clash that Western allies warned was in danger of escalating into a military conflict.
In response to the energy crisis exacerbated by the war in Ukraine, Greece has pledged to temporarily suspend coal mining and speed up hydrocarbon exploration along its west coastline.
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