Turkey again calls on Greece to demilitarize islands

Turkey’s National Security Council said on Thursday that it “expects” Greece to immediately demilitarize its Aegean islands off the Turkish coast.

“We expect Greece, which is indifferent to our proposals for dialogue, to end as soon as possible the militarization activities of islands with a demilitarized status and all violations of international treaties and international law,” read a statement from the council.

In addition, the council, which was chaired by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, “expressed its satisfaction with the inclusion of the ‘Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus’ [sic] in the Organization of Turkic States as an observer.”

The statement also said that any “attempts to prevent solutions based on truth and equality in the Cypriot conflict” were “doomed to failure,” given the “just cause” of Turkish Cypriots.

For its part, Athens has dismissed previous calls from Turkey concerning the islands in their entirety as part of a wider Turkish tactic and goal to dispute Greek sovereignty across the entire eastern Aegean in various ways.