ATHENS — If Turkey's president Erdogan does decide to turn Hagia Sophia into a mosque, this will be a high-risk move and have a cost for Turkey, Alternate Foreign Minister Miltiadis Varvitsiotis said in an interview on Thursday to RealFM radio.

Such an action, said Varvitsiotis, would mean that Turkey has decided to return to an Ottoman past, that it is turning into an Islamic republic and moving away from European values. He also predicted that Erdogan will not, finally, dare to do this.

Referring to the US State Department's recent announcements on Turkey, he said that all these indicate that all the major powers see Turkey as an uncertain variable in the region. He also sent a clear message to Turkey that "those who believe that Greece will sit at a negotiation table with the willingness to find an overall solution with Turkey are deluded if they think we will discuss issues relating to our national sovereignty in this context".