

Government Spokesman Dimitris Tzanakopoulos has warned Turkey that Greece will respond to any further acts of aggression.

“If there is another act of Turkish aggression on Greek territory, there will be a response and there is no other way for us,” he told Skai TV on Friday morning.

Tensions between the two neighbors and NATO allies escalated this week when a Turkish vessel rammed a Greek coast guard boat off the Imia islets in the eastern Aegean on Monday night.

“We responded calmly as any government should that finds itself in the center of a destabilized region,” he said, adding that Greece did not back down in the crisis.

“I’m under the impression that Turkey got the message,” he said, adding that Ankara is staging “controlled crises” in order to send a message to the West with which it is at odds over its invasion of northern Syria.

His statements came a few hours after Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias warned Ankara that the next time it acts with such aggression, Greece will not have the same peaceful behavior.

“They reached the red line and in some ways they crossed it,” Kotzias said.

