Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu openly disputed the sovereignty of Greek islands in the Aegean Sea that have soldiers stationed on them claiming they should be demilitarised.

In an interview with TRT the top Turkish diplomat also reiterated claims Ankara put forward to the UN in a letter sent which stressed that the issue of sovereignty of the Greek islands could be raised since Athens has chosen to place troops on them in violation of international treaties.

“We sent two letters to the UN, we sent them because Greece violates the demilitarisation status of the islands. These islands were ceded to Greece by the Treaties of Lausanne of 1923 and Paris of 1947 on the condition of their demilitarisation. But Greece has been violating this regime since the 1960s,” said the Turkish Foreign Minister.

He added: “In the letter, we wrote we mentioned that Greece violates the terms of the treaties, these islands were given under conditions, Greece does not change its position then the sovereignty of these islands is in dispute. Because the terms are violated. We sent our letters. We will monitor this issue. If necessary, we will make our last warnings and then this discussion will start”.

The Turkish Foreign Minister provoked once again commenting on the Cyprus issue as he claimed the Greek Cypriot side “has violated our Turkish continental shelf 9 times”.