Greece says NATO’s ‘hands-off approach’ to Turkey no longer acceptable: report - Turkish Minute
TM
Greece expects NATO to play its role with regard to Turkish activities in the eastern Mediterranean and the Aegean, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has indicated, saying that the alliance’s “hands-off approach” is no longer acceptable to him,
the Kathimerini daily reported.
“I think within NATO it is very clear that this hands-off approach – that ‘oh we have two NATO partners so we’re not going to go into the details’ – is no longer going to be accepted by me. I raised this with Secretary-General [Jens] Stoltenberg that we’re a NATO contributor and an ally and … when we feel that a NATO ally is behaving in a way that endangers our interests, we cannot expect from NATO a similar approach of ‘we don’t want to interfere in your internal differences.’ This is profoundly unfair for Greece,” Mitsotakis said during a conversation with former US ambassador to Greece and executive director of the Aspen Security Group, Nicholas Burns, at the online Aspen Security Forum on Wednesday.
“I think the alliance will find itself faced with the reality that an important member … behaves in a way that undermines the alliance and the interests of other members of the alliance. It’s an issue we can no longer afford to kick under the rug,” he said, adding that Turkey’s “unreliable behavior” within the alliance also raises security concerns.
