Panagiotopoulos: The Prespa Agreement is a big mistake

“The unconditional assignment of the Macedonian identity and the Macedonian language that was made with the Prespa Agreement was a big mistake and as it seems this fact creates problems in the path of North Macedonia’s accession to the EU due to the objections expressed by the Bulgarians” emphasized the Minister of National Affairs. Defense Nikolaos Panagiotopoulos from Florina.

During a press conference to the journalists of the critical city, Mr. Panagiotopoulos recalled the views he had expressed during his visit to Florina and Prespes a few days after the signing of the Agreement of Prespasaying that “it has serious mistakes in terms of language and identity”, but also the warning he had then that “after being removed from the fund, no mistake is recognized”, since as he commented “it is difficult to change the content of a International Agreement”.

He mentioned that he has met with his counterpart Slaviana Petrovska at the “Delphi Forum”, he stated that the desire of our neighbors is to have close defense cooperation, something that is also beneficial for our country.

He reminded that we have taken over the air surveillance of Albania and North Macedonia and that if we didn’t do it, the Bulgarians who are now building their air force with new purchases of fighter aircraft would do it.

Mr. Panagiotopoulos pointed out that in the face of the inability of the Bulgarian side to respond, the Turks would readily rush in, predicting that “the Greek side would have to make interceptions in Kilkis when the Turks would enter our airspace from the North with this entails as a burden on the armed forces’.

Asked about her attitude Homogeneitybut also of many Senators in the armament programs that neighboring Turkey is pushing on the American side, Mr. Panagiotopoulos said that “there are strong voices of members of the Senate and Congress, first and foremost the chairman of the powerful Foreign Affairs Committee, Robert Menendez, whom we met with the Prime Minister on our recent trip to the US.”

He explained that there is a strong tendency in the US legislatures that “doesn’t want Turkey to be armed under any circumstances. If in the end they say yes and put the condition that it does not allow the upgraded planes to violate our sovereign rights in the future, we will not have a problem” he concluded.

Mr. Panagiotopoulos underlined that from the Greek side it was explained in every detail that “the upgraded Turkish aircraft could be used for overflights over the Greek islands and not for NATO purposes”. Finally, he noted that thanks to the systematic efforts made by our expatriates, “our voice is heard even louder”.

Referring to the issues of security and strong armed forces, he said that “those who see what is happening in Ukraine understand what the price of security is.”

“Greece has a strong voice through diplomacy so that those who need to listen to us” – emphasized Mr. Panagiotopoulos – but also strong armed forces as a necessary condition to overcome the difficulties in an environment full of uncertainties”.

Mr. Panagiotopoulos stated that he visited the facilities of the 1st PZ Regiment located in the urban fabric of the city, noting that the decision to remain the specific military structure in Florina was “because there is a reason in the critical areas to have a military presence and not because there is a danger from the north our border”.

The undersecretary Infrastructure Giorgos Karagiannis When asked about the issue of the Florina – Bitola railway connection, he stated that “the pending network that concerns our side will be included in the part of the maintenance, so that the line will operate as soon as possible”, while regarding the Florina Ptolemaida Vertical axis he stated that “we have file the Environmental Impact Study on the Sour Water-Ammochori section and that the rest of the project will proceed with the study-build system”.

For his part, the General Secretary of Communication and Information Dimitrios Galamatis, who participated in the tour of the government echelon, referred to the government’s support measures to the regional press and called on journalists to “raise a wall against fake news”.

In the government echelon that visited the region of Amyntaio, the city of Florina and the borders at the Niki Customs, the MPs of Kozani Paraskevi Vryzidou, Florina Yiannis Antoniadis, Corfu Stefanos Gikas, and Lefkada Athanasios Kavvadas participated.

RES-EMP

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