ATHENS — Greece's main opposition leader, SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance President Alexis Tsipras, has sent letters to all high-ranking European officials and the leaders of progressive EU governments that urges them to support "a strong policy toward Turkey, which restarts EU-Turkish relations on new terms, based on strong sanctions and a strong positive agenda," sources in the main opposition revealed on Thursday.

Letters have been sent to the German EU Presidency, to France and to the prime ministers of the more progressive EU governments (Denmark, Finland, Spain, Portugal and Malta), as well as the prime minister of Italy (whose government is supported by progressive forces), European Parliament President David Sassoli, the executive vice president of the European Commission Frans Timmermans, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, the European Commissioner for Finance Paolo Gentiloni and the leadership of all the progressive groups in the Europarliament (Left, Socialists, Greens) and of Renew.

Tsipras reportedly underlined that only "brave decisions" by the European Council "for restarting Euro-Turkish relations on dynamic terms" will allow exploratory talks to progress and the dialogue on the Cyprus issue to resume.

He also stressed the necessity of a mechanism for imposing heavy sanctions on Turkey if it continues to violate the sovereign rights of Greece and Cyprus, as well as the prospect of a substantive positive agenda if it respects international law.