BRUSSELS – After being reluctant to play tough with Turkey in fears that more refugees and migrants would be unleashed on the bloc, the European Union is stepping in to support Greece over Turkey sending F-16’s into Greek airspace.

EU High Representative Josep Borrel, in charge of foreign affairs said that Turkish violations are escalating tensions needlessly, which sometimes have reached near-conflict levels.

That came in a letter he sent to Turkish Foreign Mevlut Cavusoglu who has claimed that Greece is violating Turkish airspace, with Turkey getting support from the United States about the boundary dispute.

Diplomatic sources not named told Kathimerini that the letter was sent in reply to one from Cavusoglu who accused Greece of being the provocateur between the countries and creating troubles.

Borrell reportedly said that Turkish airspace violations and Turkey’s insistence that Greece remove troops from Aegean islands near Turkey’s coast were creating hostile rhetoric and “create a negative dynamic from which there is no benefit.”

He also said that Turkey and Greece should settle differences over seas sovereignty and the Continental Shelf through dialogue that hasn’t worked and following the United Nations’ Law of the Sea that Turkey doesn’t recognize.

He also said that the International Court of Justice in the Hague should be used as Greece has recommended, but which Turkey rejected out of hand as it demanded Greece follow the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne that Turkey doesn’t accept.