It is to no one’s interest to have a conflict between Greece and Turkey, said Jonathan Cohen, U.S. State Department Deputy Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs, according to mignatiou.com website.
Mr. Cohen spoke to Congress, in an event organized by the Hellenic American Leadership Council (HALC) that promotes Greece and Cyprus issues. He spoke with HALC Executive Director Endy Zemenides about the Greece-Turkey tension in the Aegean, Cyprus and other regional issues.
“There are specific diplomatic channels traditionally used to defuse tensions when there is tension in the region,” Mr. Cohen said. He added that that all members of the NATO Alliance have an interest in ensuring that the relations between Greece and Turkey are not confrontational.
Asked about the U.S. Naval Base at Souda Bay on Crete, the deputy assistant secretary stressed its importance saying that, “the benefits of Souda in the U.S. are irreplaceable.”
According to mignatiou.com, Mr. Cohen further said that there has also been tension between Turkey and the United States in the past months because of Turkish religious leader Fethullah Gülen who lives in the United States and Turkey wants extradited on charges of orchestrating the July coup attempt, and the good U.S. relations with the Kurdish army in Syria (YPG).
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