Greece declares readiness for military action against Turkey

ATHENS, June 5 (YPA) – Greek Defense Minister, Nikolaos Panagiotopoulos, has announced that Athens is ready to do anything to protect its sovereign rights, including military action against Ankara.

“Turkey’s behavior has been very aggressive recently,” The minister said during an interview with “Star” TV channel. “I think that the only way for Greece to deal with such behavior, which generally tends to be aggressive, is on the one hand the use of all diplomatic weapons, and on the other hand to provide an increase in the deterrent force of the armed forces.”

Answering a question about whether Greece was ready for military action to resolve the conflict, he said “Yes, that’s right.”

He indicated that Greece “is preparing for any situation”, and that everything is possible, including military action. “Greece does not want this, but wants to do everything in its power to protect its sovereign rights as much as possible.”

A Turkish government newspaper, earlier, reported a request for a license to explore and produce hydrocarbons from a Turkish state oil company in an area near the Greek islands.

On Monday, Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dundas declared that Turkey is trying to seize Greece’s sovereign rights and described the issuance of a license to explore for oil and gas on the Greek continental shelf as provocation.

Greece has declared that a possible escalation by Turkey “will not lead only to a Greek-Turkish crisis, but rather a European-Turkish crisis.”

YPA