Member states of the Union for the Mediterranean

The Armed Forces effectively defended the land border Greece shares with Turkey along the Evros river in 2020 and safeguarded the country's sovereign rights in the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean, Defense Minister Nikos Panagiotopoulos said in a year-end assessment.

Turkey on Dec. 26 urged Greece to act in common sense and responsible manner, responding to a Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) recently issued by Greece for a vast area in the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean. 

"We see that Greece continues her provocative and escalatory steps in the region," Hami Aksoy, the Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesperson, said in a statement.

Landmark Election

People of the catholic western part of Mostar vote in the first post-war elections in Mostar, Bosnia And Herzegovina, 30 June 1996. Photo: EPA/ANTONIO BAT

Education represents the chance that every state has for a better future, and without education, the country can guarantee neither health, security nor the prosperity of its citizens, the representatives of the governing coalition say in the governing programme to be submitted to Parliament for a vote of confidence on Wednesday.

Defense Minister Hulusi Akar on Dec. 22 called on Greece to seek a solution to the eastern Mediterranean dispute through dialogue with Turkey instead of trying to drag the European Union into the conflict.

Germany is against Greece's demands of imposing an arms embargo on Turkey due to tension in the Eastern Mediterranean, the German foreign minister said on Dec. 22. 

Heiko Maas told the DPA news agency that he finds the arms embargo on Turkey "strategically incorrect".

Egypt said on Wednesday that the United Arab Emirates has joined the Cairo-based Eastern Mediterranean Gas Forum as an observer.

Egypt, Israel, Greece, Cyprus, Italy and Jordan established the EastMed Gas Forum (EMGF) as an intergovernmental organization in a virtual ceremony hosted by Cairo in September.

The Palestinian Authority is also part of the forum.

Five prominent Greek Americans have published a sponsored editorial in the New York Times asking the US administration to stop Turkey from escalating tensions in the Eastern Mediterranean.

The European Council's December 11, 2020 decision to continue to postpone imposing sanctions against Turkey over its actions in the Eastern Mediterranean was a disappointing, although not entirely unexpected, outcome for Greece. Even the tone of the Council's final draft of its conclusions was quite far from the expression of solidarity that Athens expected.

Turkey rejects the European Union's "biased and illegal" approach at its summit this week and calls on the bloc to act as an honest broker in an ongoing dispute in the eastern Mediterranean, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said on Friday.