An answer to those who were “surprised” by the statement of the former president of PASOK Evangelos Venizelos in the recent OT FORUM, that “The Aegean is not a Greek lake”, he gave in a post on Facebook. In fact, the former president of PASOK is heading in all directions, talking about “supposedly super-patriots” and “irrelevant”.
Mr. Venizelos states, among other things, that this position “is a reminder and repetition of a historic statement made by Konstantinos Karamanlis to Bulent Ecevit during the meeting of the two prime ministers in Montrai on March 10-11, 1978”, while “repeated to the then Turkish Prime Minister by the special envoy of Konstantinos Karamanlis, Ambassador D. Kosmadopoulos, on October 25, 1978 “.
He concluded: “I want to hope that the Government and the opposition that belongs to the democratic-European spectrum understands the importance of these positions and can take advantage of them.”
The statement in detail:
“I reiterated yesterday that I have stressed many times that our strategy towards Turkey must be based on international law and start from the neutralization of unilateral and illegal Turkish allegations that distort Greek positions.
Three simple and self-evident statements can make a significant contribution to this:
First, that Greece obviously does not consider the Aegean a Greek lake.
Secondly, that Greece obviously does not want to exclude Turkey from the Mediterranean, from multilateral cooperation and the exploitation of natural resources, but this presupposes delimitations of the EEZ and the continental shelf in accordance with International Maritime Law.
Thirdly, that Greece can obviously exercise, whenever it deems appropriate, its right deriving from its national sovereignty to extend its territorial waters to 12 n.m. However, what can and should be done immediately is to extend the Greek territorial waters to 12 nm in the Eastern Mediterranean, where Turkey also has 12 nm territorial waters, while in the Aegean it has 6 nm territorial waters.
So some supposedly super-patriots, maybe some just irrelevant, are said to have been surprised by the statement that the Aegean is not a Greek lake. A key feature of the professionals of national populist “hyperpatriotism” is the unhistorical, the absence of real historical consciousness, very often even knowledge of historical events.
The phrase that Greece does not consider the Aegean a Greek lake is a reminder and a repetition of a historic statement made by Konstantinos Karamanlis to Bulent Ecevit during the meeting of the two prime ministers in Montrai on March 10-11, 1978. The relevant statement is included in its minutes. meeting published in the 10th volume of the archive of Konstantinos Karamanlis (edited by K. Svolopoulos), p. 136.
This formulation was repeated to the then Turkish Prime Minister by the special envoy of Konstantinos Karamanlis, Ambassador D. Kosmadopoulos, on October 25, 1978. The ambassador’s report is published in the archive of Konstantinos Karamanlis, op. Cit., P. 380.
This is therefore an official statement by the Greek Prime Minister who represented the country internationally.
“I want to hope that the Government and the opposition that belongs to the democratic-European spectrum understands the importance of these positions and can take advantage of them.”
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