ATHENS – Greece will not allow Turkey to consider migration a bilateral issue, nor to blackmail the country with the migration flows, Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias stressed in an interview with SKAI TV on Monday.

“It is not always easy to communicate with the Turkish side, even in issues that the right, the legal and the fair is obvious,” Dendias said and added: “Greece is making an effort to explain to Turkey that there are specific obligations and the government must make an effort to organise the way it will handle the migration issue while shielding its borders.”

The Foreign Minister explained that the numbers are now exceeding the capabilities of the system and so this system must develop very rapidly.

“We will not let Greece adrift if Turkey is not willing to understand its obligations,” he underlined. “Turkey can find in Greece a serious and sincere interlocutor that also understands Turkey’s problems. Turkey is home to 4 million people. Greece is the one that, despite Turkey’s behaviour in various issues, has supported Turkey’s request for financial support from the European Union. Turkey should understand and appreciate all these.”

“We will meet our constitutional duty to shield the country’s borders,” Dendias pointed out, adding that the supply of 10 extra vessels is a good step for the guarding of the sea borders.