Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has pressured Athens to resolve the bilateral row over claims to the waters off the shore of Cyprus through dialogue, warning of “painful experiences” for Greece otherwise.
Greek deputy minister to the prime minister and government spokesman Stelios Petsas has stated that Athens could not confirm the information that Turkish tanks are being redeployed to the country's border with Greece and suggested that it could be a “propaganda” stunt by Ankara.
According to a report by Turkey's Ihlas News Agency (INA), citing military sources, Ankara has started redeploying its forces currently stationed in the south-east, on the border with Syria, moving around 40 tanks to Edirne province, bordering Greece. The agency claimed that two convoys loaded with tanks had been dispatched from the southern Hatay province for that purpose.
At the same time, a conflicting report from Anadolu Agency (AA), citing an anonymous official, suggested that the tanks were not going to the Greek border. The redeployment of the armoured vehicles was reportedly pre-arranged some time ago and is not linked to the ongoing row between Athens and Ankara. Turkey's Second Army, stationed in the province of Malatya, issued the order for redeployment, AA said, although it is not clear if these tanks will join the forces in the province or will go somewhere else.
The Turkish Defence Ministry has not commented on either of the conflicting…
