Mitsotakis on tension with Turkey and EU treaty

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Sunday a de-escalation in the tensions between Greece and Turkey will be "mutually beneficial" as the two countries will be able to revisit the 2016 EU-Turkey declaration.

The declaration included and agreement that Turkey would accept returns of migrants from the Greek islands, something which has ceased in the past months as tensions between Athens and Ankara had been rising.

Speaking during an annual news conference in Thessaloniki, Mitsotakis said Greece "will not be blackmailed and accept such threats of sending distressed, miserable people to Europe, in order to serve geopolitical interests."

Greece is currently building a fence on its land border with Turkey, a project Mitsotakis described on Sunday as "a long-term shield".

Mitsotakis also urged the European Union to take a greater responsibility for managing migration into the bloc, as Greek authorities promised that 12,000 migrants and asylum-seekers left homeless after fire gutted an overcrowded camp would be moved shortly to a new tent city.

Mitsotakis blamed some residents at the Moria camp on the island of Lesbos for trying to blackmail his government by deliberately setting the fires that destroyed the camp last week.

But he said this could be an opportunity to improve how the EU handles a key challenge.