The next steps of Athens’ strategy towards the unbridled revisionism of Ankara

By Dimitris Gatsios

The next steps of Athens on the front of meeting the challenges of Turkey are defined by the Prime Minister. With President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and top officials’s neighbor tied tighter to the … chariot of unbridled revision every day, Mr. Mitsotakis, in an interview with ERT, highlighted the line of “calm,” clarifying that he will not follow Ankara’s leadership in rhetorical outbursts.

“It would be very easy – and I think I could have had a temporary political benefit inside the country – if I had adopted a similar rhetoric towards Turkey. I am not going to do it. It would be a nationally irresponsible act to add fuel to the fire. “I never confuse foreign affairs with domestic political news. And, consequently, I will continue to defend Greek positions with calm confidence,” Mr Mitsotakis said.

Apart from the message that our country does not engage in dialogue with the irrational, what one can keep from yesterday’s interview with the Prime Minister is the signal for the continued internationalization of Turkish challenges. Let us not forget, after all, that the Summit in Brussels and the NATO Summit in Madrid open on the horizon of the coming weeks, with Athens informing partners and allies about Turkey’s delinquency.

“I will do it in every international forum I am in, whether it is the European Union, NATO or NATO, or this is my bilateral contacts. Not in the mood to target Turkey and point the finger at anyone, but to “I explain why in this difficult situation for Europe it would be a big problem for Europe, for NATO, for the United States to have another source of uncertainty and instability in the south-east wing of NATO”, was the characteristic disgust of Mr. Mitsotakis.

The Prime Minister, for the first time after the meeting with President Erdogan in Istanbul, referred to the … red lines set by Athens in that fourth quarter.

“From our discussion onwards, while the first weeks were relatively calm, there was a crescendo of overflights over the islands of the Eastern Aegean. I am also referring to overflights that took place over the large inhabited islands of the Eastern Aegean. “He directly violated the ‘red line’ that I myself had set for President Erdogan, telling him clearly that, as Greece, we will never enter into any discussion about the sovereignty of our islands,” he said. “Consequently, let me say that it was Turkey that, in quotation marks,” took the first step “of provocation and tension in Greek-Turkish relations.

Like Turkey was the one that in November 2019, a few months after I was elected Prime Minister and after we had our first meeting at the UN, signed the provocative and illegal Turkish-Libyan memorandum. “It was like Turkey that in March 2020 instrumentalized the refugee and forced Greece to raise its stature, to protect the borders of our country, which are also the borders of Europe”, added Mr. Mitsotakis.

Athens, however, continues to show Ankara the path of respect for International Law, betting, at the same time, on its strong positions, its strong alliances, but also on the upgrading of its geostrategic, energy and economic role in the wider region. The Prime Minister was clear. “We will do whatever is necessary. And the Greeks must feel absolutely safe, that the country does not just have a strong deterrent, which I believe we have taken care of these three years to strengthen further, but also has very strong allies. “It is part of a framework of countries that realize that borders can not be violated by force and that differences between states must be resolved with a single guide and a single point of reference in international law,” he stressed.