Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias thanked Turkey for its assistance in the repatriation of three Greek sailors stranded in Djibouti, Kathimerini reported.
Three Greek sailors were evacuated on Saturday with the help of the Turkish embassy in Djibouti. They were brought to Turkey and then returned to Greece after Athens officially requested Ankara’s help.
“We did what we had to do. We thanked Turkey for the assistance it provided to the Greek government for the return of the Greek sailors,” Kathimerini quoted Dendias as saying in a televised interview.
Dendias announced the rescue of stranded sailors on Twitter on Sunday but did not mention Turkey’s contribution.
“Don’t mix politics with humanitarian issues. We did not help three Greek sailors so you could thank us, but out of a sense of humanitarian duty,” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu wrote Monday on Twitter.
Turkey has been conducting a number of evacuation operations, bringing back at least 60,000 Turkish nationals and enabling nearly 20,000 foreigners in Turkey to return home.
