ATHENS: Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said on Thursday Greece would not tolerate any challenge to its territorial integrity, days after Turkish and Greek coast guard vessels collided close to disputed islets in the Aegean Sea.
“Our message, now, tomorrow and always, is clear... Greece will not allow, accept or tolerate any challenge to its territorial integrity and its sovereign rights.”
“Greece is not a country which plays games,” Tsipras told an audience at the cοuntry’s shipping ministry.
The collision involving the two vessels occurred on Monday evening off Imia, known as Kardak in Turkish. Each side blamed the other for the incident.
Turkey and Greece, NATO allies, have been at odds over a host of issues from ethnically split Cyprus to sovereignty over airspace and overflights.
They came to the brink of war in 1996 in a sovereignty dispute over the islets, but tensions have eased since.
Noting that Greece’s eastern border is also that of the European Union, Tsipras said: “Challenges and aggressive rhetoric against the sovereign rights of an EU member state are against the EU in its entirety.”
Tensions between the two countries have been on the rise since a Greek court blocked the extradition of eight Turkish soldiers whom Ankara accuses of involvement in a failed coup against President Tayyip Erdogan in 2016.
Greece says it won’t tolerate challenge to its rights after Turkish collision
Greece says it won’t tolerate challenge to its rights after Turkish collision
OSCE to probe Georgia over human rights concerns
- OSCE said they were invoking the so-called Moscow mechanism to “establish a fact-finding mission” focusing on Georgia
- The mission will “assess Georgia’s implementation of its OSCE commitments”
VIENNA: The world’s largest regional security organization will probe the human rights situation in Georgia, with members expressing “increasing concern” about democratic backsliding in the Caucasus nation in a statement Thursday.
Authorities in the Black Sea country have in recent years pursued a crackdown on the opposition and have jailed prominent pro-EU figures.
The government has faced accusations of democratic backsliding, drifting toward Russia and derailing Georgia’s bid to join the European Union — allegations it rejects.
In a joint statement seen by AFP, 24 members of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said they were invoking the so-called Moscow mechanism to “establish a fact-finding mission” focusing on Georgia.
The mission will “assess Georgia’s implementation of its OSCE commitments, with a particular focus on developments since spring 2024.”
“We have followed closely and with increasing concern the human rights situation in Georgia,” said the joint statement made by 23 European countries and Canada.
The countries urged Georgia “to cooperate with and facilitate the work of the mission.”
Under the mechanism, experts on a mission have a time frame of several weeks to submit their report.
Most recently, the mechanism has been invoked several times to send experts to Ukraine since Russia’s invasion in 2022, with them finding “clear patterns of international humanitarian law violations.”
Founded in 1975 to ease tensions between the East and the West during the Cold War, the Vienna-based OSCE counts 57 members from Europe, Central Asia and North America, including Russia, Ukraine and the United States.
