AKP party

Tensions with Ankara have resurfaced again after Ankara's objections to Greece's announcement to designate marine parks, including one in the Aegean Sea. 

Ankara's intransigent stance on issues related to the Aegean, as expressed by its ministries of foreign affairs and defense and the ruling AKP party, stem from its long-held theory of "gray zones" in the region.

Ankara has reiterated its call for direct talks between Greece and Turkey through Omer Celik, deputy chairman and spokesperson of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling AKP party. 

A few days before his arrival in Athens on December 7 to attend the the High Cooperation Council between Greece and Turkey, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan referred to a "new page" that will open in relations between the two countries.

By George Gilson

When in July, 2020 Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan turned the Hagia Sofia Museum into to a mosque, he sparked an international outcry.

Over a year later, addressing members of his AKP party in Rize, Erdogan accused the opposition of trying to keep Hagia Sophia closed.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday accused Athens of interfering in his country's domestic affairs, warning that "if Greece does not know its place, Turkey knows how to answer."

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has reportedly instructed government officials to "do a study" on how to change the status of Hagia Sophia, the Byzantine-era Greek Patriarchal cathedral that was later transformed into an Ottoman mosque before becoming a museum in 1935. 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday evening that he supports Ali Erbas, the head of Directorate of Religious Affairs, Diyanet, over his statements condemning homosexuality.

Erdogan also slammed the Ankara Bar Association, a lawyers' group, for accusing Erbas of inciting hatred.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday said there is "no difference" between Nazis and the Greek authorities trying to hold the country's border against the influx of thousands of migrants and refugees spurred to push into the European Union by Ankara.

Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos on Monday met with China's Li Zhanshu, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) during a state visit to China, state-run Athens-Macedonia (ANA-MPA) news agency reports.

Pavlopoulos discussed Greece's key foreign policy issues, particularly the Cyprus problem, ANA-MPA said.

As Ankara insists on its aim of drilling in Cyprus's exclusive economic zone (EEZ), despite vehement objections by the European Union, another Turkish official scaled up tensions further over the weekend, calling on Cyprus to "remember 1974," referring to Turkey's invasion of the island.