Turkey's behavior, threatening war against Greece because of its legal right to extend its territorial waters to 12 nautical miles, is unbecoming of a NATO ally and the alliance should be concerned about such threats from Turkey, Greek National Defense Minister Nikos Panayiotopoulos said.

His remarks said commenting on Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu's statement that Ankara would not allow Greece to extend the boundary of its territorial waters in the Aegean Sea, TASS reported.

"This statement of casus belli (a formal reason for declaring war), which refers to Greece's ability to exercise a legal right, is more evidence of provocative revisionism than of the behavior of an ally within the North Atlantic Alliance. 

"So this should be of concern to many," the minister said. "As I said earlier, Greece does not threaten, but it also does not like to be threatened," Panayiotopoulos continued. "The government rules the country and acts based on the national interest and on the rules governing peaceful coexistence between states, i.e., international law."

Earlier, commenting on recent statements by Turkish officials at the request of journalists, new Greek foreign ministry spokesperson Yiorgos Arnaoutis said that Greece does not accept the threat of Turkey using force in the Aegean Sea and opposes them to the generally recognized rules based on international law and the international maritime law.