German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, on an official visit to Athens, deemed Thursday "not acceptable" that Turkey, as a member of NATO, "challenges the sovereignty of another member" of the Alliance, Greece.
"It is not acceptable for one NATO partner to challenge the sovereignty of another," said the social democrat in an interview with the Greek daily "Ta Nea".
"This is true when there are more or less veiled military threats," added the chancellor, who arrived in Athens on Wednesday evening from Paris and started his day with a visit to the Acropolis with the Greek prime minister. , Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
Both members of NATO, Athens and Ankara maintain tense relations, particularly around the delimitation of the waters which separate the two neighbors in the eastern Mediterranean.
This long dispute has been rekindled in recent years by attempts by Turkey to explore for hydrocarbon deposits in these disputed waters.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has also accused European Union member Greece of “occupying” Aegean islands whose status was settled by treaties adopted after World War I.
The tension was further increased during an informal European summit in Prague in early October, when Kyriakos Mitsotakis left the official dinner during the speech of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
"Good neighborly relations between Greece and Turkey are important not only for these two countries but for all of Europe", underlined Olaf Scholz who must also meet with Mr. Mitsotakis before a working lunch.
He urged the two countries to "resolve the issues through dialogue and on the basis of international law" while Germany, due to the weight of its community of Turkish origin and the thorny issue of migration, has always sought to maintain dialogue with Ankara.
In addition to territorial disputes, Athens and Ankara blame each other for the repeated shipwrecks of migrant boats seeking to enter the European Union.
Olaf Scholz is making his first official visit to the Greek capital since he took the helm last November of a tripartite coalition (Social Democrats, Greens and Liberals).
