Turkey's top diplomat, NATO chief talk east Med over phone
ANKARA- Anadolu Agency
The Turkish foreign minister on Sept. 17 spoke with the head of NATO and his Canadian counterpart over the phone, according to diplomatic sources.
Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, Jens Stoltenberg and Francois-Philippe Champagne discussed the ongoing dispute in the Eastern Mediterranean.
Also, Çavuşoğlu spoke with Tatarstan's President Rustam Minnikhanov over the phone.
Greece has disputed Turkey's current energy exploration activities in the Eastern Mediterranean, trying to box in Turkish maritime territory based on small islands near the Turkish coast.
Turkey, the country with the longest coastline in the Mediterranean, has sent out drill ships to explore for energy on its continental shelf, citing that Ankara and the TRNC have rights in the region.
Dialogue about fairly sharing resources will be a win-win for all sides, say Turkish officials.
'EU Parliament's decision on east Med unacceptable'
Meanwhile, Turkey on Sept. 16 blasted an "unrealistic" resolution by the European Parliament against Turkey on the ongoing dispute in the Eastern Mediterranean.
In a statement, the Foreign Ministry said the advisory decision, which was adopted in the European Parliament's General Assembly solely for the sake of solidarity among the EU members and serving the "selfish" interests of some member countries, is "unacceptable" in many ways.
The European Parliament's biased and unjust attitude, as well as its invalid and one-sided interpretations of maritime law for which it is not authorized, has damaged its reputation, the statement added.
The statement underlined that neither the European Parliament, nor the EU, nor its member states have the authority to determine the borders of third countries.
The adoption of such a "biased decision" despite Turkey's efforts at all levels across all EU institutions is incompatible with goodwill and common sense, it added.
Members of the European Parliament adopted a resolution on Thursday expressing "full solidarity" with Greece and the Greek Cypriot administration against Turkey's actions in the Eastern Mediterranean.