Turkey came very close to crossing Greece’s red lines in the Aegean, foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias warned in an interview on Tuesday. Greece is prepared to meet every challenge coming from the Turkish side, but at the same time it is determined not to back down or accept any claim, he stressed. “Without being provocative, there is an appropriate legal, political and diplomatic answer to every action of Turkey,” Kotzias stressed and called on the opposite side to be careful because “We will not always be tolerant.”
In a wide-ranging interview to Skai TV, Nikos Kotzias spoke about Greece’s determination to protect its sovereign interests, as well as about the Cyprus issue, the case of the eight Turkish servicemen whom the Supreme Court refused to extradite to Turkey, and NATO’s operations in the Aegean.
“A year-and-a-half ago I described Turkey as a nervous power, a power, in other words, which like Germany after Bismarck in the 19th century had become nervous and did not maintain a balance with its environment,” Kotzias said in the interview, which was recorded last Friday, the day of the Farmakonisi incident last week.
“Some people in Turkey think that Greece could be like Syria or Iraq. The ‘game’ they played at Farmakonisi is a serious violation of international law and I think they should know that we will not always be tolerant, that our response will not only be the one that we gave then, that it will be much harsher.”
Asked what the Greek government was doing to face this “nervousness,” Kotzias said: “We have communicated with all the major powers on the planet, we have informed all international organizations and, of course, we have made the necessary protests against Turkey for their violations of our territorial waters and for their behavior. The international climate and international law are on the side of our interests, they are tools that we will not abandon. But I want to repeat from here, in this interview, that they are not the only instruments we have. We are not Syria, which has been destroyed, nor a disorganized Iraq… Turkey is making a mistake if it thinks that because we have an economic crisis we are weak as regards our country’s security. They are making a big mistake. Because we have economic problems our care for the security of our country and its sovereignty is greater than in the past.”
Asked whether Turkey had crossed any of the Greek government’s red lines, as in the Farmakonisi incident, Kotzias replied, “They nearly did this morning.”
Commenting on whether differences between Greece and Turkey could be solved at The Hague, Kotzias said: “If I had to choose between a court and war, I would choose the court. If I had to choose between a court and a bilateral, substantial and real agreement, a process of agreement, I would choose the latter. For the time being, we are in the latter process. With the difficulties caused by the situation in Turkey.”
Full interview here.
I didn’t know Greece kept to any of their red lines so this statement has no credibility.
if turkey takes a few islands, like imia and other islets…nothing will happen except greeks being angry and crying in Bruxelles
That would mean that the EU doesn’t care if an non EU country takes some parts of its soil away.
And that would mean that i.e. a non EU country like Russia could easily take some parts of Eastern Europe and the concerned EU country i.e. Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary etc. could only be angry and crying in Bruxelles. Right?
Oh, and what would it mean to be a NATO member and the NATO itself?
Oh, and what would it mean to be an EU member and the EU itself?
The EU has basically no military anymore. NATO is run by the US. US wouldn’t let TR and GR fight so all this is just bravado.
Turkey, to show Greece who’s boss.
GR, to deflect people’s attentions away from Greece’s actual problems, its economic crisis, and to justify to the people that they need to waste money on it’s military, so the politicians and army officers can get nice commissions out of it.
“NATO is run by the US.”
Parts of NATO a run by Germany (i.e. Netherland under German control.
“US wouldn’t let TR and GR fight so all this is just bravado.”
Said WHO? Trump?
“Turkey, to show Greece who’s boss.”
Turkey (Erdoganistan) to show EU and Germany who’s boss?
or
Merkel/Schäuble to threaten Greece with Erdoganistan if it not complies with the “rules” they set?
“Turkey, to show Greece who’s boss.”
AGAIN
Your answer to that what I wrote at 1.56 pm shows me that you think, that if an non EU country like Russia took parts away from of an Eastern EU country, like Hungary, Cz, etc would only “deflect from their actual problems” and show that not the EU but Russia is the boss.
Right?
Deflect which people’s attention?
All this is bravely democratically ignored by EU, US and ALL their media, may be with good luck one will find something only on Indymedia. It’s your politicians and your media that will be responsible for this war and all the pogroms coming with it or even before as a starter as your media is too much focused on Turkey’s referendum and supporting Kemalist bastards that will be even worse than AKP. Good luck in Germoney, esp for the responsible.
Can it be that this script looks too much like the one they’ve created in the past about his Caliphate?
While at the same time Erdogan is opening wide the door to EU via a reunited Cyprus with the “4 EU-rights” he wants.
Are you suggesting all this escalation the last weeks is faked by Greece?
What you think why internet-activity grows from Albanian nationalists showing maps of a romantic Great Albania with being the half of it half of Greece and Turkey created – decades after killing half of the Anatolian population – a myth of Turks being Albanians and original Trojans, due to lack of aborigines?
Do you think Bulgaria, Albania and parts of former Yugoslavia will not react to this idiot that isn’t capable to learn that his “Turkish minorities” there are not all believing in his stupid god and so far most don’t consider themselves as Turks?
What you think why Greece made progress with Egypt and Israel about energy-pipelines direction Italy?
Russia, btw is not only inspiration but also directly involved:
“Turkey is interested in purchasing Russian S-400 missile systems, talks on possible supplies are underway, Sergej Chemezov, CEO of Rostec state corporation, said on Monday, according to Tass news agency. “Turkey is interested in S-400 systems. Talks are underway. The key issue is financing,” he told journalists on the sidelines of the IDEX 2017 international defence exhibition”.
But Russian priests will be very helpful and create malfunction
Turkey’s DefMin said today ‘talks on S400 have made progress’
“The key issue is financing”
What about the Deutsche Bank?
I guess Russia gots a similar bank like Germoney and US have for foreign customers and so Russia will support it with a credit
If Turkey invades islands the war won’t be in 30 minutes in Athens, you think? While preparing already for Turkish Nazi pogroms in Central Europe…
Turkey wants to bring the war from Syria into Europe!
It’s the same tactic of Hitler with Danzig and invading parts of neighbour countries already long before he started his war on Poland – while telling his general stuff some week before WW-2 started to be brutal against Polish civilians including children, women and old and asking them “Who today cares about the extinction of the Armenians?”
That said, one shouldn’t forget that the main reason to be brutal and attack fast was that otherwise Germany would have run out of ammunition after 14 days because she was already broke from constructing the motorways for her tanks.
It is dangerous to talk about red lines. If you talk about red lines you’d better be prepared to honour them. Or else you end up redrawing them all the time, making you look like a fool. Perhaps it is better not to talk about them.