Berlin

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Davutoglu said Tuesday that there is no reason for Greece to participate in the Berlin Process, the initiative to try to resolve the crisis in Libya.

"Why did Mitsotakis invite Haftar to Greece? Did he just want to provoke us?" an annoyed Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on his return from the Berlin conference on the Libya crisis regarding the meeting between Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Libyan military commander Khalifa Haftar in Athens on Friday.

The main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) on Jan. 20 welcomed the recently held Berlin summit on Libya, saying the number of countries Turkey cooperates with on regional issues should increase.

Escalating the incendiary rhetoric directed at Athens, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan claimed again, after his return on Sunday from the Berlin conference on Libya, that the southern island of Crete does not have a continental shelf while also slamming Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis for receiving Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar in Athens last week.

The United Nations envoy to Cyprus warned on Jan. 20 of "growing skepticism" among the island's population that recent diplomatic efforts between the rival communities will herald a comprehensive peace deal.

This is the latest in a series of articles about the demographic crisis facing Central and Southeast Europe.

The Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia still refuse to take in small contingents of the million or so refugees who arrived in the EU from the Middle East and Africa, despite an EU plan to spread the load among all member states. 

Foreign Affairs Minister Bogdan Aurescu, stressed, at the meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council held in Brussels, the importance of the consistent and swifter implementation of the Mali Peace Agreement.

Having achieved the government's aim to seek a broad consensus over its pick for Greece's next president, Katerina Sakellaropoulou, Prime Minster Kyriakos Mitsotakis' focus has shifted to Greek-Turkish relations, with an eye on Libya and migration.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday that Somalia had invited Turkey to explore for oil in its seas, after Ankara signed a maritime agreement with Libya last year, broadcaster NTV reported.

Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias on Monday hailed the outcome of Sunday's conference on the Libya crisis as a positive first step, although he regretted the fact that the summit's conclusions did not reiterate the position of the European Union on the contentious agreements signed between Ankara and the Tripoli-based government.