Kyriakos Mitsotakis will become the first Prime Minister of Greece to address the Congress and “will do everything to stand out as a trusted partner of the alliance”, notes the Handelsblatt in an extensive article on the subject of the visit in the aftermath of ratification by Parliament of the defense agreement with the United States. “The agreement does not only reflect the growing strategic importance of Greece. “Political observers also see it as a sign of growing doubts about Turkey’s credibility as a NATO partner.”
Referring to the Greek Prime Minister’s strong ties with the United States, the author of the article Gerd Heller estimates that during his speech in Congress, Kyriakos Mitsotakis “will benefit from the fact that he speaks American English almost without pronunciation. There is strong resistance in Congress to new arms sales to Turkey. Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan does not have many friends between senators and lawmakers. First it was Erdogan’s proximity to Vladimir Putin and the ordering of Russian anti-aircraft missiles, now his refusal to support Western sanctions against Russia combined with the Republic’s chronic deficit and finally reservations. Erdogan against Finland and Sweden joining NATO “Washington is increasingly skeptical of Turkey.”
What does Erdogan want?
Turkey and its veto threats to the accession of Finland and Sweden to the North Atlantic Alliance are also mentioned in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung examining the motives of Tayyip Erdogan and recalling that no one initially expected this move as, “when the allies formally agreed on rapid accession to Helsinki and Stockholm in recent weeks, Ankara had not objected”. According to the author of the article, Tsavousoglu’s statements about the two countries’ support for the Kurds of the YPG and the PKK are aimed at easing Turkey’s reservations about Germany and other NATO partners selling arms to their country on the grounds that similar do not exist in the case of Ukraine either. “Sweden and Finland are just political levers of pressure on the other members. The fact that Turkey disagrees with the United States on armaments could also play a role. Washington is negotiating the delivery of F-16 fighter jets with Ankara after the country was excluded from the F-35 program. In Congress, such a thing meets resistance. “Is Turkey trying to bend it by threatening to veto a completely different issue?”
A political, but also a human victory
“We are coming to Kyiv”, is the title of her article Taxation (TAZ) of Berlin for the triumph of the Ukrainians Kalush Orchestra at Saturday’s Eurovisionυ. The fact that the band “literally got the highest rating from all countries through televoting as well as social media, application and telephone – is reassuring: the strength of those devastated by Russia’s horrific war against Ukraine is greater than that of pop experts representing juries. ”
“Immediately after the announcement of the result, accusations began that the victory was due to political reasons and stemmed only from solidarity and compassion,” notes the Hamburger Abendblatt clarifying however that the song was among the favorites even before the outbreak of war in Ukraine. “Of course, solidarity also played a role. Eurovision has never been free of politics, but above all of emotions. “The fate of the young people from Ukraine who were discharged from military service as ambassadors of their culture and the enthusiasm with which they presented their energetic mix of Ukrainian folklore and hard rap simply convinced me.”
DW – Katerina Alexandridi
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