Why did the Greek Prime Minister-Kyriakos Mitsotakis-feel the need to attack, even from Brussels, parties to the right of the ND and various media for the “extremely extreme voices”, as he described them, that are being heard internally regarding the ongoing Greek-Turkish dialogue?
What is it that he fears and tries to prejudge the reactions of the Greek public opinion? Does this attack show a political inability to reassure his foreign policy?
The Greek Prime Minister wondered why they accuse him, his government and the foreign minister of being compromisers because they are talking with Turkey. But, G. Gerapetritis himself, in a recent interview, said: “If I am to leave a large legacy, a neighborhood which will be calm, let me also be characterized as a discounter”! An incredible statement, really, for a foreign minister.
It foreshadows meiodation, i.e. betrayal of national interests, in return for a legacy of calm. There is also the oldest: “Red line is 6 miles”.
K. Mitsotakis wondered where all these super-patriots were when we extended territorial waters to 12 miles in the Ionian Sea and when we signed the EEZ with Egypt. These ultra-patriots, as you characterized them, K. Mitsotakis told you then and they tell you now that we must extend our territorial waters to 12 miles on all our coasts, in the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean, as we have the right from the International Law of the Sea.
They also told you that the delimitation of the EEZ with Egypt should not be partial (until the 28th Meridian – leaving out half of Rhodes and Kastelorizo), and that the islands (Crete, Kasos, Karpathos and Rhodes) should not be to have reduced influence, contrary to the Law of the Sea which gives them the same rights as continental shores. Just so you don’t complain that: “extreme rhetoric leaves no meaningful alternative on the table.”
The “false patriots”, as you characterized them Mr. Mitsotakis, are simply the Greek patriots and they will not be the first who in a real crisis would put their tails on the rocks, as you said.
- Some others, supposedly realists, have now put their tails at their feet when they talk to the Turks.
- They put the queue at their feet in Kasos, for the electrical interconnection cable with Cyprus.
- They put their tails in their feet with the Marine Spatial Planning requiring EU Directive and prefer to pay a fine.
- They put the tail in their feet with the Marine Parks which, if they exist, will probably be limited to 6 miles of existing territorial waters.
- They have put their tails in their feet by not granting offshore blocks for hydrocarbon exploration in the EEZ with Egypt.
Why has Greece not declared, according to the International Law of the Sea, its EEZ, as Turkey has arbitrarily done with the “Blue Homeland”? Who really are the “false patriots” and who are the real patriots?
Why, Mr. Mitsotakis, do you keep repeating that the talks with Turkey are aimed at delimiting the continental shelf and EEZ? You cannot fail to know that it is not possible to make two demarcations. The continental shelf is also included in the EEZ, while the overlying sea is not included in the continental shelf.
One of the two you will delineate. The Turks only want to discuss a continental shelf, as their Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said recently, to claim that the Eastern Aegean islands sit on the Anatolian continental shelf.
Why do you keep referring to continental shelf?
Mr. Mitsotakis, you think you can have a “civilized” discussion with Turkey, as you say, but this way it is exonerated and facilitated. The Declaration of Athens made it easier for Erdogan to acquire the American F-16s (40 + 80 aircraft). The continuation of the dialogue gives an alibi to “friend” Germany to allow the sale of the Eurofighter-Typhoon.
PS The former president of the Hellenic Republic, Prokopis Pavlopoulos, in his recent speech at the presentation of a book, said that: “Greece’s only issue with Turkey is the delimitation of the island continental shelf and the EEZ in the Aegean”! He would forget the A. Mediterranean. Except that, if the continental shelf of the thousands of Aegean islands is demarcated (as long as the Turks accept that they have them – which is doubtful) there can be no EEZ demarcation, not even between the continental coasts.
The Greek EEZ will directly meet the continental shelf of the islands, without the possibility of geographical contact with the corresponding Turkish one. We are talking about violations of the International Law of the Sea. Ignorance is ruled out, intent to cultivate confusion, most likely.
