The Greek government reportedly commenced a diplomatic “counter-offensive” on Tuesday against the increasingly provocative Erdogan administration, calling for an EU-wide suspension of military hardware sales to Turkey and a prospective suspension of the all-important EU-Turkey customs union.
Media reports in Athens on Monday evening and Tuesday morning said Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias has addressed twin letters to a handful of EU counterparts – Germany, Spain and Italy are all cited – as well as EU enlargement and neighborhood minister Olivér Várhelyi requesting the unprecedented measures.
The “straw” that reportedly “broke the camel’s back” came last week, with the presentation of Ankara’s latest instance of “Turkography”, i.e. a map showing half of the Aegean being under the responsibility of Turkish forces for search-and-rescue purposes.
The map, unveiled by a smiling Turkish minister, overlaps scores of Greek islands in the eastern and central Aegean, covering sea regions that are dozens of nautical miles from the nearest Turkish territory on the Asia Minor coast and only a few nautical miles from the nearest Greek island or sea region.
Moreover, as Athens caustically pointed out, the declaration is flatly illegal and in direct contravention with the UN International Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
