Dendias: Turkey must understand that solidarity can't be cherry-picked

Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias, in an interview with public broadcaster ERT on Friday, said that he had stressed the need to continue and further strengthen NATO operations in the Aegean at the NATO Council of Foreign Ministers, in order to address the migration issue.

Referring to Turkey, Dendias underlined that it must understand that solidarity among allies cannot be cherry-picked but must be complete.

"There is a significant misunderstanding on Turkey's part," Dendias noted, explaining: "All of us assist every one of us in all matters covered by the alliance's broader agenda. It is not permissible for one member-state to seek the assistance of the other members for its own matters and for that same member-state of the alliance to then turn against, in a manner that is hardly friendly - to not use the more precise term - another member-state of the alliance but also against a union of states, the European Union, to which many members of the alliance belong."

Regarding a Turkish news reports on Friday claiming that many countries have stood by Turkey, Dendias pointed out that "the Turkish side wants to see things in a way that serves its interests." The foreign minister added: "There is widespread understanding of Greek views on the issue of migration. It is clear that international pubic opinion has formed a negative view of Turkey's stance in this matter. Everyone is aware that these flows were orchestrated and augmented by the Turkish side. Human pain was instrumentalised; this is the truth and it is not acceptable to 21st-century society. I hope that the Turkish side will come to see this clearly."