Political geography

Greece would on Monday conduct military exercises using real ammunition near the Evros land border with Turkey.
The exercises, set to take place at border outposts at Kipoi and Kastanies, were announced Sunday by the Fourth Army Corps, which is charged with defending the Greek-Turkish borders in Thrace and the Aegean Sea.

In a letter to the United Nations, Greece has protested against Turkey's "unsubstantiated and legally unfounded claims" in the Eastern Mediterannean saying that they shun "the legitimate sovereign rights of Greece and of other neighboring countries" in the same maritime area.

Former European Commissioner Christos Stylianides has been appointed visiting professor-in-practice at the department of health policy of the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) after receiving the green light from the College of Commissioners, it was announced Wednesday.

The United States has temporarily excluded 47 goods from the list of Chinese products subject to customs duties, which was announced in September 2018, TASS reports.

This is stated in a statement published in the electronic database of the US Federal Register (a collection of official documents of the US Government). The exceptions will apply until 7 August 2020.

Azerbaijan's president on Feb. 15 said the Upper Karabakh issue cannot be resolved in a day and there is a need to resolve the conflict in phases.

Defence Minister Nikos Papagiotopoulos denied the public statement of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that Athens agreed with Ankara not to approach the Imia islets on the anniversary of the 1996 dispute over their sovereignty brought the two countries to the brink of war.

Erdogan's remark triggered a political backlash in Athens.

Several hundred migrants and refugees who tried to cross the border from Serbia to Hungary on Thursday night have been turned back by Hungarian police and moved to camps in Serbia.

The group arrived at the Kelebia-Tompa border crossing and spent the night protesting and attempting in vain to enter Hungary. Most came from Syria, Afghanistan, Yemen, Morocco and Palestine.

Deputy Defense Minister Alkiviadis Stefanis said on Thursday that Greece is maintaining dialogue with Turkey but that the country's armed forces are on standby.

"Diplomacy is the first choice," he told Skai radio. "We have open channels of communication but the armed forces are ready to do what is necessary in coordination with the Foreign Ministry," he added.

Defense Minister Nikos Panagiotopoulos has denied reports widely circulated in the Greek media on Thursday alleging that he had challenged claims by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan regarding Imia islets.
A statement from the Defense Ministry said Panagiotopoulos "never made such a statement."

Defense Minister Nikos Panagiotopoulos rejected on Thursday claims by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that he sent a message to Greece through Defense Minister Hulusi Akar not to make any "move" over the eastern Aegean islets of Imia, for which the two countries were brought to the brink of war twenty-four years ago.