Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Thursday rejected criticism from two former prime ministers from his conservative New Democracy party on the government's foreign policy on neighboring Turkey, saying he wants relations with Ankara to be "as functional as possible."
"Greece extended its territorial waters in June, staked its claim to sovereign rights south of Crete, drilled for the first time in 40 years," he said in an interview with private Antenna television.
"For the first time Greece has been setting the agenda and Turkey, to a certain extent, has been reacting."
"I am the only Greek prime minister to have gone to Ankara and raised - politely but, I believe, without retreating from Greece's positions - the issue of casus belli," he added, referring to Turkey's standing threat to declare war if Greece expands its territorial waters in the Aegean Sea.
He said criticism from former prime ministers Kostas Karamanlis and Antonis Samaras on his Turkey policy is "unfair."
