Ankara considers unacceptable Athens' planned expansion of the country's territorial waters in the Aegean Sea, announced by former Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias, Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Hami Aksoy said Tuesday.
ANKARA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 23rd October, 2018) Ankara considers unacceptable Athens' planned expansion of the country's territorial waters in the Aegean Sea, announced by former Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias, Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Hami Aksoy said Tuesday.
Kotzias, who resigned from the post of the head of the Greek Foreign Ministry, said on Saturday he had planned to extend the territorial waters of Greece in the Aegean Sea to 12 miles from six miles currently. Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, who also became Kotzias's successor, said at the handing-over ceremony that his office would continue the work on expanding the maritime border. Earlier on Monday, Aksoy told Sputnik that Ambassador of Greece in Ankara Petros Mavroidis had been summoned to the Turkish Foreign Ministry over Kotzias' statement.
"We have followed the statements of Greece's former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Kotzias and its Prime Minister and new Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Tsipras regarding the plans for the gradual extension of Greek territorial waters, as well as the related news. We cannot tolerate any step that is not based on mutual consent in the Aegean Sea where two countries have opposite coasts," Aksoy said in a statement.
He also recalled Turkey's 1995 warning that an attempt by Athens to expand its territorial sea beyond 6 nautical miles would authorize its government to declare a war on Greece.
Ankara's views and warnings have been conveyed to the Greek ambassador, Aksoy added.
