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German Press: A ‘historic speech’ by K. Mitsotakis in Congress

The press about Mitsotakis’s visit to the USA, the Turkish threats for a veto on Finland-Sweden accession to NATO and the Ukrainian victory in Eurovision.

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 visit in the aftermath of the 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 take advantage of the fact that he speaks American English almost without accent. In Congress there is strong resistance to new Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan does not have many friends among senators and lawmakers, first Erdogan’s proximity to Vladimir Putin and the order for Russian anti-aircraft missiles to now refuse to support “Combined with the chronic deficit of democracy and finally Erdogan’s reservations about Finland and Sweden joining NATO – Washington is facing Turkey with growing skepticism.”

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, the aim of Turkey is to alleviate the reservations of Germany and other NATO partners to sell arms to its country on the grounds that there are no similar reservations in the case of Ukraine. “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 an article by the Tageszeitung (TAZ) in Berlin on the triumph of the Ukrainian Kalush Orchestra at Saturday ‘s Eurovision Song Contest. “Social media, apps and the telephone are reassuring: the power 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,” 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 was never free of politics, but mainly of emotions. The destiny of young people from Ukraine who were freed from military service as ambassadors of their culture and enthusiasm. with which they presented their energetic mix of Ukrainian folklore and hard rap, it just convinced. ”

Katerina Alexandridi

German Press: One

Source: Capital

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