SYRIZA-PS calls on the government “to take a position immediately and refute today’s provocative publications of the Turkish press which, cited by the Turkish Ministry of Defense, claim that “the Greek authorities requested permission from Ankara for the activities of the cable-laying ship in Kasos” and in this way Greece “accepts what is contained in the Turkish-Libyan memorandum”.

In its announcement, SYRIZA states that “the Turkish side seeks once again to bring back the neo-Ottoman revisionist narrative of the Blue Homeland and the invocation of the invalid and legally non-existent Turkish-Libyan Memorandum, in an attempt to challenge Greek sovereign rights in violation of of International Law”. He adds that “in this context, the leaks from sources of the Turkish Ministry of Defense are included, according to which Turkey… “thanks” the Greek and Italian authorities “for the respect and cooperation with its maritime jurisdictions” and that ” these inadmissible statements are manifestly false and contradict any concept of international legitimacy”.

According to SYRIZA, “the answer through sources of the Ministry of National Defense that “no “respect” has been shown or will be shown in the future by the Greek Armed Forces to Turkey’s illegal actions in the legally demarcated zone of Greece – Egypt”, is not enough and does not constitute a clear answer on whether the Greek government asked for permission to lay cables in Kasos”. He notes that “there must be a clear answer immediately and it must be made clear to the Turkish side that the continuation of its illegal actions will result in very serious consequences for both Greek-Turkish and Euro-Turkish relations”.