Petsas: 'Nobody needs to test us, we are ready'

According to the spokesperson, the bad weather conditions could be responsible for the entry of the Turkish survey vessel "Oruc Reis" into the area of Greece's continental shelf on Friday.

Petsas underlined that the prime minister and the government were fully informed and in contact with the defence ministry throughout Friday, starting with a briefing from the ministry's political and military leadership very early on Friday morning and continuing until Friday evening.

"Naturally there was a full briefing of the prime minister and this process was concluded at 18:00 in the evening at the Maximos Mansion," he stated.

"What we see based on the information given by the people that went there, from the frigate at arrived at the scene with all the means that the Hellenic Army has to control our region, we saw that it was a matter that is probably caused by the weather conditions. Subsequently, we monitored all these developments calmly and the Greek people should know that Greece is ready to defend its sovereign rights but will do this with calm and confidence," Petsas said.

"It is clear from the way that the Greek armed forces respond, not now but going back many years, that no one needs to test us to determine our readiness," he added.

Petsas repeated that Greece has made clear to all quarters that it acts on the basis of three things, namely: "international law is on our side, our allies are at our side and we have the strength to do what is needed to defend our sovereign rights."