Turkey summons Greek envoy over despicable news headline

By Dilara Hamit

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey on Friday summoned Greece's envoy to the country over a despicable headline in a Greek newspaper about the Turkish president, the country's foreign minister said.

Insulting and cursing should not be seen in terms of freedom of the press, Mevlut Cavusoglu said in a news conference.

Cavusoglu also stressed that there is no point in embarking on new initiatives in Cyrpus which are doomed to fail.

"We have said over and over again that we will no longer negotiate for a federation on the Cyprus issue," he said.

In 1974, following a coup aimed at Cyprus' annexation by Greece, Ankara had to intervene as a guarantor power. In 1983, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) was founded.

For many decades, talks were held to resolve the dispute, all of which ended in failure. The latest, held with the participation of the guarantor countries, ended in 2017 in Switzerland.

In 2004, the plan of then-UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan for a solution was accepted by the Turkish Cypriots but rejected by the Greek Cypriots in referendums held on both sides of the island.

More recently, Greece has disputed Turkey's current energy exploration activities in the Eastern Mediterranean, trying to box in Turkish maritime territory based on small islands near the Turkish coast.

Turkey, the country with the longest coastline in the Mediterranean, has sent out drill ships to explore for energy on its continental shelf, citing that Ankara and the TRNC have rights in the region.

Dialogue about fairly sharing resources will be a win-win for all sides, say Turkish officials.

In a recent report, Guterres said that "new ideas" may be needed for settling the issue of the island.