The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Giorgos Gerapetritis, spoke to SKAI, among others, about the developments in the Middle East, the Greek-Turkish as well as the Cyprus issue.

“Today we are in the most difficult post-war phase“, he said. He said that in our wider region it is “the most difficult period we have experienced in the post-war world”.

He noted that at the moment there is a very serious escalation and an invitation from the United Nations to exercise restraint. “We will have to see whether the actions that have been taken will create domino conditions for the wider region and whether the 3 components Hezbollah, Houthi and Hamas will coordinate strikes either inside or outside Israel and what will be Israel’s reaction”he said characteristically.

He emphasized that what must be prevented is a further expansion.

Regarding the consequences for Greece as well, he stated that “it is obvious that this escalation will create major problems for peace in the region and internationally, it will also create issues regarding the humanitarian situation in the region”.

“There will be an increase in migration flows”

He reminded that already in Gaza and in other regions of the Middle East there is a profound humanitarian crisis which is getting even worse with time.

“We expect that there will be an increase in migration flows and there are issues related to the supply chain,” he said characteristically.

He underlined that the Greek state has taken a position of principle in the issues of the Middle East. “We supported from the beginning the situation as it is formed on the basis of international law and for this reason even today we have ensured – and not many countries have done this – that we can talk to all the active actors in the region, with both places, with the Arab world, with Europe of course, having undertaken many initiatives in this direction”.

He noted that “we underestimate that in Greece we currently have a high security situation, we are not at risk because of the region”, reminding that this is not the only war happening in our region, “however, we have ensured that we do not have extremely serious consequences and to maintain peace and security in the area and this is our goal. May Greece come out as unscathed as possible and may we all come out of this crisis the next day without having such dramatic consequences for the world.”

“Inaction has never benefited national issues”

Mr. Gerapetritis stated that with regard to national issues, there should be a sobriety, a prudence, in order to promote the interests of the country in the best possible way. He emphasized that historically it has been proven that inaction has never benefited national issues and has led to further atrophy. “Unfortunately, we saw it in the part of Cyprus where we already have 50 years of a division that is against every concept of international law and a dying wound, we saw it in the Greek-Turkish situation where every time we discussed with Turkey we found ourselves in more extreme positions. There have been 64 rounds of exploratory contacts for the purpose of demarcating maritime zones, and each time we were in a worse place than the last.”.

He emphasized that “without being naive or giving up our sovereignty, we have to discuss our sovereign rights with our neighbors, about the easy things as well as the difficult ones. The open channels that exist prevent tensions from becoming crises.”

There was no direct or indirect recognition of a Turkish claim

The Foreign Minister on the issue of Cassou, said that “there was such a level of misinformation that really causes me great surprise”.

As he explained:

1. “The ship completed its survey and not only on the basis of the programming it had but even more, it “swept” the area for a longer time than originally planned.
2. There was no risk of an incident with Turkey, from the first moment the communication channels that exist at all levels worked in order to decompress the tension, leave the Turkish ships and complete the investigation.
3. There was no direct or indirect recognition of a Turkish claim, no permission was obtained from Turkey to conduct this investigation”

He noted that “long-term, sustainable peace with Turkey cannot exist unless the major underlying issue is resolved… which is the delimitation of an exclusive economic zone and continental shelf”.

Regarding the Cyprus issue, he stated that at the moment it is a major priority of the United Nations organization and that “we expect there to be greater mobility in the next period”, noting that he is in constant communication with the top executives of the organization “in agreement with the Cypriot government with with which we are in good cooperation so that within the framework of the decisions of the Security Council… we can have a restart of the dialogue that would lead to the reunification of the island”.