“I am warning Greece: You were saved owing to a cowardly [Turkish] admiral in 1996. Do not play the Kardak game with us. We will shoot you!” Hüseyin Kocabıyık, the party’s İzmir deputy, tweeted on Feb. 1.

Kocabıyık was referring to a previous escalation between the two countries 21 years ago over the small Aegean islets.

The AKP deputy also claimed that the naval commander of the time disobeyed the instruction of then-Prime Minister Tansu Çiller to sink Greek ships.