ATHENS — Sources within main opposition SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance on Tuesday reported that the party's leader, Alexis Tsipras, was strongly critical of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis' handling of Turkey, during an emergency meeting on Turkish aggressiveness held at the main opposition's headquarters on Monday.

"I have to wonder what the red line is for Mr. Mitsotakis," Tsipras was quoted as saying. He also noted that the developments with Turkey should come as no surprise, harking back to his statement 10 days earlier, when he said that Mitsotakis had "thrown in the towel" at the EU summit. He also criticised the prime minister for expressing "satisfaction" with the summit's conclusions, in spite of the fact that they contained no reference to sanctions. "In these 10 days, Erdogan opened up Varosha and sent a research vessel to survey within the area of the Greek continental shelf, even within the potential 12 nautical miles of our territorial waters in Kastellorizo," Tsipras said.

He added that, in the current conditions, an extension of Greece's territorial waters to 12 nautical miles around the islands of the Eastern Mediterranean and Crete was the only way forward. Without a mechanism for sanctions, even at this time, and if the issue of extending Greece's territorial waters to 12 nautical miles in the Eastern Mediterranean was not broached, "then Greece and the EU will lose all credibility," Tsipras said.

The SYRIZA meeting was held on Monday with the heads of the relevant portfolios within the party and former armed forces' chiefs.