Another top member of an increasingly agitated Erdogan government on Thursday hurled more threats against the eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus – one-third of which the Turkish military continues to occupy – with Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu taking a lead from Recep Tayyip Erdogan himself to claim that “the Greek Cypriots cannot take any steps against us”.
Another top member of an increasingly agitated Erdogan government on Thursday hurled more threats against the eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus – one-third of which the Turkish military continues to occupy – with Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu taking a lead from Recep Tayyip Erdogan himself to claim that “the Greek Cypriots cannot take any steps against us”.
In ramping up Ankara’s usual saber-rattling, Cavusoglu veered even further along the jingoist “playbook” to add: “...even if they dare, they’ll receive an answer, as happened in the past”.
He was directly alluding to a July 1974 invasion by the Turkish military, in statements to the state-run broadcast in Turkey.
Cyprus, an EU and Eurozone member-state, has forcefully decried Ankara’s attempts to explore for hydrocarbons in the Cypriot EEZ, drawing regional and international attention to activities by Turkey – a non-signatory of the UN Law of the Sea.