GREEK Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias headed to New York today for talks with the UN over Turkey’s “illegal activity” in the Mediterranean.

A tense standoff has developed between Athens and Ankara over Turkey’s despatch of ships to prospect for oil and gas in disputed waters off Cyprus.

Both countries have sent warships into the area and conducted live-fire exercises in the seas between Cyprus and Crete – a Turkish and a Greek frigate collided last month, reportedly causing minor damage to the Turkish vessel, but no injuries.

Simulated dogfights between Greek and Turkish fighter pilots have multiplied over the Aegean Sea.

Though Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg said yesterday that the two nations – both members of the US-led military alliance – had agreed to “technical talks” to reduce the risks of military “incidents and accidents,” this was swiftly denied by Athens, which said it would only begin talks once Turkey had withdrawn its prospecting vessels.

The denial prompted accusations of lying from Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, who said: “Greece has refuted the Nato secretary-general. But it isn’t [he] who is lying, it’s Greece itself that is lying – it has again shown that it does not favour a dialogue.”

Turkey has warned the EU that if Brussels slaps threatened sanctions on it over its activities in the Mediterranean, it would cease “co-operation on refugees.” Turkey holds more than a million refugees in camps in line with an illegal agreement struck with the European Union to keep them out.

When President Recep Tayyip Erdogan last opened the border in March refugees were trapped between Greek and Turkish border guards and were fired on by both sides, with one Syrian refugee killed by Greek forces.