Greek president says Erdogan rhetoric 'undermining Lausanne Treaty'

Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos on Tuesday said recent comments by his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan are "undermining" the Treaty of Lausanne delineating the borders between the two countries, as well as bilateral relations between Greece and Turkey.

Speaking in Edessa during a ceremony naming him an honorary citizen of the northern Greek town, Pavlopoulos said that "the rhetoric of Turkish President Erdogan, in any perspective, even the most benevolent, unfortunately directly or indirectly undermines the Treaty of Lausanne, not to mention Greek-Turkish relations and relations between the European Union and Turkey."

Erdogan caused displeasure in Athens in September by indicating that Ankara "gave away" Aegean islands to Greece under the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923, the pact that defined the borders of modern Turkey following the collapse of the Ottoman...