“Regarding our relations with Turkey, we are no longer with the pure bilateral agenda of the previous decades. We have aligned our national aspirations with the corresponding European ones in the region, making us “Champions League”, we now count”, pointed out the vice-president of the Commission, Margaritis Schinastalking on his television .

Mr. Schinas emphasized that the worst is behind us in Greek-Turkishafter “we experienced the ugly Turkish phase in the hellish summer of 2020, when Erdogan was also busy with his re-election”, adding that once he cleared the landscape of the political map, Turkey’s attitude changed radically.

Invited to comment on the latest developments with the Monastery of the Country and the first Muslim prayer after the conversion of the temple into a mosque, he underlined:

“The decisions regarding Hagia Sophia and the Monastery of Chora saddened me both as a person and as a Greek and as a European official. It is clear that Erdogan is trying to change the agenda around his country’s socio-economics and create a core around religion. What we can do is mobilize our influence around UNESCO and the European Union so that these monuments continue to be open to society and belong to humanity.”

In fact, he noted that all of the above does not go unnoticed by Brussels, where it is now clear that Turkey is now “sliding towards a more Muslim situation”. As he mentioned, Turkey has quadrupled its trade relations with Russia, at the same time that Europe has 14 sanctions packages against the latter because of the Ukrainian one.

“Ursula von der Leyen has locked in the presidency of the Commission – In the long run, the proposal for a common European army”

Then the discussion shifted to the background around the fermentations at European offices.

Margaritis Schinas stated that the quartet of the next leadership of the European Commission is known, with Ursula von der Leyen “locked in” for the presidency, Roberta Metsola for the European Parliament, Mr. Costa for the Council and the Estonian Prime Minister Mr. Kalas for Foreign Affairs.

“I believe that we must soon end this issue, Europe cannot afford to wait. We have two wars in our neighborhood, we have inflationary pressures, an energy crisis, the last thing we need is a leadership crisis”, he pointed out, announcing that the Mitsotakis-Tusk initiative for a joint air defense dome will go ahead.

“Defence issues will be the focus for the new Commission, with the issues of rapid intervention being at the center and with a common will for a common European army at the end of the long-term path.”

Finally, commenting on the war scenarios with the RussiaMr. Schinas made it clear that the period of innocence is over for Europe, leaving open the possibility of a worsening of the operational situation in the Ukrainian.

“There is a company in the Kremlin with which we can never be sure. The Latins used to say “if you want peace, prepare for war”. Just see that countries bordering Russia, Sweden and Finland, traditionally neutral, have decided to join NATO.”