"We totally reject the baseless claims regarding our country in the of a joint statement of the trilateral meeting with the participation of Greece-Egypt-Greek Cypriot Administration Foreign Ministers held in New York on 27 September 2019," the statement read, issued by Turkish Foreign Ministry.

The latest efforts of Greece and GCA to involve the countries in the region, in addition to the EU countries, in their maximalist national policies do not serve peace and stability in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Countries in the Eastern Mediterranean neither have authority nor responsibility nor a word to say concerning the Aegean problems and the Cyprus issue.

The ministry warned that steps with political expediencies aiming to isolate and ignore Turkey and the Turkish Cypriots in the Eastern Mediterranean have no chance of success.

Furthermore, it is also insincere on part of Greece to make baseless claims against Turkey at a time she extends cooperation messages to us.

Turkish Foreign office invited these countries to face the political, economic and geographic realities of the region, and to pursue policies of cooperation in conformity with these realities.

There is no other way for stability in the Eastern Mediterranean, and for a just and lasting settlement of the Cyprus issue.

Projects which do not include Turkey and the Turkish Cypriots in this region will never be efficient and effective.

"We will continue to defend resolutely both our and Turkish Cypriots’ rights in the Eastern Mediterranean," the statement concluded.

ILKHA