Greek Prime Minister Wants NATO to Condemn Turkey’s Maritime Violations

ATHENS (Sputnik) - Greek officials who came to a Turkish border town on Saturday to witness the launch of a major stretch of an EU-backed gas pipeline walked away in a huff after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed to continue drilling off Cyprus.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis vowed on Sunday to raise his country’s grievances against Turkey at the upcoming NATO summit in the hope that the bloc would side with him.

Greece has condemned Turkey’s exploratory gas drilling near Cyprus and its recent deal with Libya to delineate maritime boundaries in the Mediterranean.

"The alliance cannot stay indifferent when its member flouts international rules and blatantly confronts another member," Mitsotakis said at a congress of his New Democracy party.

Turkey does not recognise the ethnically divided island, which is an EU member. It claims that the European Union ignores the interests of the Turkish Cypriot population in the north.

The announcement of the Turkish-Libyan deal this week added insult to the injury by ignoring the presence of the Greek island of Crete that lies between the two. Athens argues that the pact infringes on economic rights of other eastern Mediterranean nations.