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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is seen during a NATO summit at the Alliances HQ in Brussels last year. [Reuters]

Turkey will take all necessary steps to protect our rights in the Mediterranean and Aegean, its president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said on Monday.

With our four drilling rigs and our two seismic vessels, we are determined to continue our activities in the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, without any interruption, Erdogan said, speaking at the conclusion of a cabinet meeting in Ankara.

His comments come a day before a NATO summit in Madrid, where Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is expected to respond decisively if Erdogan raises issues with Greece.

Erdogan also said he will do whatever is necessary for our countrys rights and interests at the summit.

He would provide documents and visuals on terror groups, including Kurdish militant groups and the network of exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen blamed for a 2016 attempted coup in Turkey, to show his counterparts the hypocrisy on terror.

Ankara has objected to Swedens and Finlands bids to join NATO, citing what it considers to be a lax approach to groups Turkey deems national security threats, including the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, and its Syrian extension.

Turkey has demanded the two Nordic countries extradite wanted individuals and lift arms restrictions imposed after Turkeys 2019 military incursion into northeast Syria.

We will tell them clearly that it is not possible to expect a different attitude from Turkey unless this picture changes, he said. [Reuters, Ekathimerini]

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Erdogan vows to protect rights in Mediterranean and Aegean - Kathimerini English Edition