



Turkey’s leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan has targeted the country’s main opposition party for its legacy of “giving away” Aegean islands in 1923.

In a speech on Saturday, the Turkish president took a swipe at Kemal Kilicdaroglu, head of the secular Republican People’s Party (CHP), saying:

“If you ask Kilicdaroglu, he will say we won in Lausanne. Then, he blames [Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party] for the islands.

“You gave the islands. The leaders of your party.”

The CHP leader has repeatedly raised the issue of sovereignty in the Aegean, recently demanding Erdogan clarify which islands actually belonged to Greece.

This latest spat comes in the same week which, 22 years ago, saw Greece and Turkey nearly go to war over the Imia islets in the Aegean.



