ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkish and Greek officials met at NATO headquarters on Thursday for talks aimed at preventing further military escalation in the eastern Mediterranean, a Turkish security source said, as Greece called for “meaningful” European Union sanctions on Turkey.
Military officials from the two countries, both NATO members, were due to hold talks in Brussels on Tuesday after an initial contact last week, but NATO postponed the talks.
The “military de-confliction” talks, announced by Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg last week, aim to prevent an escalation from incidents such as a collision between Turkish and Greek warships last month.
The warships had been shadowing a Turkish vessel surveying for oil and gas in disputed Mediterranean waters west of Cyprus, an operation that Greece condemned as illegal. Ankara and Athens both view the area as part of their continental shelf.
Greece says any discussion is contingent on the departure of Turkish vessels from disputed waters, but Turkey says it will not engage in talks under pre-conditions.
The technical talks at NATO will not address underlying territorial disputes, but could discuss establishing a hotline between the two militaries.
“Turkey continues to support efforts for the resolution of the issue through dialogue and without any pre-conditions,” the security source said, adding talks started at 1230 GMT and were underway in Brussels.
Greece has also been calling for EU sanctions on Turkey. On Thursday, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said the bloc must impose “meaningful” sanctions on Turkey unless it pulls its vessels from the area. He said Turkey and Greece needed dialogue “but not when held at gunpoint”.
The dispute in the eastern Mediterranean has also delayed EU sanctions on Belarus, four EU diplomats said, while exacerbating tensions between Turkey and France, which have been at odds over a host of issues.
EU leaders will meet on Sept. 24-25 to address the issue.
(Reporting by Ece Toksabay and Tuvan Gumrukcu; Editing by Daren Butler)
