Greece will not discuss its defense formation with Turkey, Greek Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lana Zochiou said Thursday, responding to Turkish criticism over the reported deployment of Patriot air defense systems to Karpathos and the dispatch of F-16 fighter jets and frigates to Cyprus.

Zochiou said Greece would continue providing protection to Cyprus “for as long as the crisis lasts,” stressing that Athens rejects renewed Turkish claims that Aegean islands must be demilitarized.

“Unilateral allegations about the demilitarization of the Aegean islands are unfounded and have been repeatedly rejected,” she said.

Zochiou added that the legal status of Greece’s Eastern Aegean islands is governed by the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, the 1936 Montreux Convention and the 1947 Paris Treaty, “to which Turkey is not even a contracting party.”

These agreements, she said, clearly define the islands’ legal framework, while Greece’s defense posture is “nonnegotiable, especially during a period of intense geopolitical instability in the region.”

She also noted that the issue of Karpathos or Cyprus was not raised during a recent conversation between Greek Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis and Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan.

Greece’s assistance to Cyprus, she said, “has a purely defensive character,” adding that the island remains a pillar of stability and security despite Turkey’s continuing illegal occupation of part of its territory.

Earlier, Turkey’s Defense Ministry called the Patriot transfer to Karpathos an “illegal act” and said Ankara was taking “all necessary measures.”

A Turkish defense official also said Ankara, a guarantor power in Cyprus, would not allow “hostile actions and faits accomplis targeting the rights and interests of the ‘Turkish Cypriots,’” adding that Turkey would use the powers granted by that guarantee if necessary to respond to developments in the Eastern Mediterranean region.

Source: Ekathimerini.com