Tsipras: Turkey is an Aggressive Neighbor

Click to read the article in Turkish/Kurdish

Speaking at 48th World Economic Forum in Davos, Prime Minister of Greece Alexis Tsipras has emphasized that his “European partners couldn’t always appreciate the challenges of living with an ‘aggressive’ neighbor such as Turkey”.

“We have to grapple with an aggressive neighbor”

Coming to power in 2015, Tsipras said that he “took the helm at a very difficult time for Greece which didn’t only have to grapple with its worst debt crisis and the refugee crisis, but also an ‘aggressive neighbor, sometimes unpredictable with an aggressive military activity in the Aegean’”., Reuters reported.

“At the same time we have to take a decision on what we are going to do with this aggressive behavior of Turkey,” said Tsipras and added “For somebody (sic), it is very easy to be also aggressive if they are living in Luxembourg or Netherlands, because their neighbors are Belgium and Luxembourg, and not Turkey. But it’s not so easy for us.”

NATO partners Greece and Turkey have a long history of differences that have outlived the Cold War, ranging from jousting over airspace in the Aegean Sea to minority rights and the ethnically split island of Cyprus. (PT/TK)