Turkey accused Greece on Friday of flouting international law by carrying out a military exercise on an island in the Aegean Sea.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry said it was aware of Greek media reports that said Greek special forces had recently parachuted onto the island of Kos (Istankoy) and said the exercise was a breach of the Paris Peace Treaties in 1947 that banned all such training on the islands.
A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry said:
“We call on our neighbour Greece to refrain from unilateral actions that could trigger tensions and that are against international law. We notify that our country will not refrain from taking the necessary steps that is in line with our political and legal statuses regarding the Aegean Sea.”
A Greek Defence Ministry source confirmed to Reuters that there had been a scheduled exercise at the beginning of the week involving parachutists.
“The training schedule of the Greek armed forces is not going to stop,” the source told Reuters.
Tensions between the two countries have been on the rise since a Greek court last week blocked the extradition of eight Turkish soldiers, accused by Ankara of involvement in the failed coup attempt of July 15, 2016. Turkey has said relations with Greece would be reviewed.
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