In his speech at the Economist’s conference, “The Third Thessaloniki Metropolitan Summit”, the Minister of National Defense said that “there are huge opportunities if we reach a point of common understanding with Turkey”, pointing out that “this understanding also includes the resolution of the Cyprus problem”.
“Revisionism is not acceptable in the 21st century, and behaviors that violate International Law and threaten geopolitical balance and stability and disrupt agreed borders cannot be accepted,” pointed out the Minister of National Defense, Nikos Dendias, during his speech at The Third Thessaloniki Metropolitan Summit organized by ECONOMIST in collaboration with Powergame.gr
“We must not allow other forces, revisionist forces to undermine the fragile stability of a historically sensitive region,” he said, also referring to the war in Ukraine.
To a question about Greek-Turkish relations, Mr. Dendias replied: “If President Erdogan and the Turkish establishment realize that in order to move forward they must understand that there are rules in this game, International Law, Law of the Sea, and every discussion must take into account this context and the participants must respect that the other country has internationally recognized borders, sovereignty is not something we discuss in Europe either, then there is a way forward for Greek-Turkish relations. There are huge opportunities , if, of course, we reach a point of common understanding with Turkey. This understanding includes the solution of the Cyprus issue. If we leave the Cyprus issue aside, we will come back and pollute these Greek-Turkish relations in the future.
But if on the other hand Turkey still has the dream of becoming the local ruler and is simply buying time due to the economic difficulties it is facing, then I am sorry that sooner or later we will take steps backwards and face a situation like the one we faced in the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean in 2020-2021. If I had to choose, I would hope that the former would happen and I have to say that Greece is ready to do what it can to resolve the dispute with Turkey. And as we always say, it takes two to tango.”
Regarding Tayyip Erdoğan, he noticed that after his re-election he changed course. We are facing his last term, he has great ambitions to reach the same height as Atatürk and maybe higher and this is his last chance to leave his stamp on Greek-Turkish relations.
With regard to the Balkan region, he emphasized that Greece seeks, in a very essential way, the consolidation of stability, security and the formation of conditions for development, and the correctness of its choice to act as a bridge of the Balkan countries to Europe was confirmed by the events with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which endanger stability and security on the European continent.
“The strategy for Southeast Europe determines the next steps of our policy and leads us to face other risks and challenges, such as extremism, terrorism, human trafficking, xenophobia, anti-Semitism. For all of these, Greece has a role and reason in the wider region and in fact a primary role. Cooperation, mutual understanding, the Euro-Atlantic path, but also democracy, the creation of Institutions of participation, the proud European edifice, is the path that leads to a better future for our country and the region us”, he pointed out.
Source: Skai
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