https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...-mediterranean
France to send warships to support Greece in Turkish standoff
Greece’s prime minister,
Kyriakos Mitsotakis, has welcomed a decision by France to dispatch war frigates to the eastern Mediterranean as a standoff with Turkey over regional energy reserves intensifies.
With tensions between Athens and Ankara causing growing international alarm, Mitsotakis described the vessels as “guarantors of peace.” “The only way to end differences in the eastern Mediterranean is through international justice,” he told reporters after holding talks in Paris with the French president,
Emmanuel Macron. “Greece and France are pursuing a new framework of strategic defence.”.......
The Gallic-Greek alliance cements what officials in Athens are calling a renewed diplomatic push to counter Turkish belligerence in the Mediterranean.
Greece’s defence minister, Nikos Panagiotopoulos, this week went as far as to warn that armed forces were “examining all scenarios, even that of military engagement” in the face of heightened aggression from Ankara. Rejecting Turkish demands that Greece demilitarise 16 Aegean islands, he accused
Turkey of displaying unusually provocative behaviour.
The demand, made last week by his Turkish counterpart, Hulusi Akar, follows a dramatic surge in recent months in the number of violations of Greek airspace by Turkish fighter jets. “Greece does not provoke, does not violate the sovereign rights of others, but it doesn’t like to see its own rights violated,” said Panagiotopoulos.
Tensions between the Nato allies prompted Donald Trump to take the unprecedented step of voicing concerns over the situation in a telephone call with the Turkish president,
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, on Monday......