The Foreign Policy of the #Mitsotakis Government has completely failed! Unquestionably now. And definitively…
The “Athens Agreement” , the infamous “Friendship Agreement” with Turkey , of 2023, would supposedly bring the following:
— “Calm waters” in relations with Ankara
— A climate that could lead to a resolution of our differences through dialogue or arbitration.
— And support for Greece from the US , so that there can be a positive settlement with Turkey.
None of this happened!
- The Agreement was a very dangerous NOTHING!
It did not commit either country to anything.
He made it clear from the beginning, explicitly…
And it was a very DANGEROUS “nothing” , because Greece was declaring its “friendship” towards the country that… openly threatens it with War!
— With the country that constantly creates new faits accomplis to the detriment of #Greece.
So with this Agreement, Greece conveyed to every third party that our differences with Turkey “are not serious” – since they can be resolved between us “amicably”.
So he was washing Turkey clean in the eyes of third parties!
— He specifically sent a message to countries that could ally with us against #Turkey – such as Egypt – that Greece has no intention of forming local alliances against Turkey.
The same people in Athens who were quick to declare their “friendship” towards Turkey were “emptying” to Haftar in Libya. And now they see Haftar and Egypt approaching Ankara…
So friendship with Ankara weakened local alliances against a common enemy.
— It also gave Cyprus the feeling that – for the first time – it is alone! And thus it weakened the hitherto unbreakable union between Greece and Cyprus.
If Greece proclaims its friendship with Turkey at a time when Turkey illegally occupies 40% of Cypriot territory and directly threatens Greece itself , then Cyprus would rightly conclude that it no longer has anything to expect from Greece.
— He also betrayed Greece in the eyes of everyone else.
If Greece denounces in every way Russia, which is doing to Ukraine what Turkey has been doing to Cyprus for fifty years , and at the same time Greece proclaims its “friendship” with Turkey, this means that everyone is laughing at Greece!
And no one takes her seriously anymore. No one!
The one who harms and threatens you is… your “friend” , and the one who does the same to someone else is your “enemy”!
This is Greece’s self-extinction from the map!
- The Friendship Agreement did NOT even ensure “calm waters”!
We had a recession in air violations over the Aegean, but at the same time we had an upsurge in naval provocations in the Aegean.
That is, they stopped challenging us where they have a problem ( in the air force, due to an embargo by the US ), but escalated the challenges where they have an advantage (in the navy).
Essentially, we “made it easier” for them to pressure us without taking any risks…
- We still had successive impositions of new “faits accomplis” by preventing the laying of the cable outside Kasos, we had permanent navtex from Turkey in half of the Aegean , now we have the zoning of marine parks in areas of Greek jurisdiction – in EEZs that we have already declared with Egypt and in EEZs that we have not yet declared, but belong to Greek jurisdiction under International Law.
- And we have, of course, Turkey’s declared intention to institutionalize the “Blue Homeland” through a Law from its National Assembly.
So the friction with Turkey did not stop.
With the #FriendshipAgreement , Turkey continued to escalate and Greece stopped reacting!
- Of course, the two countries “came no closer” to reaching an agreement to resolve their differences through dialogue or arbitration. Turkey imposes a fait accompli and Greece protests.
And of course the “informal assurances that Mr. Blinken gave us three years ago on behalf of Washington that he would support us are no longer valid , since Mr. Blinken no longer exists, he disappeared with the change of government in the US, and the new US government is at odds with the actions of the previous government, and Trump does not even speak with Mitsotakis during NATO summits.
- We are told that the zoning of marine parks does not create legal effects. However, it does create new faits accomplis.
— And the invasion of Cyprus was illegal and remains illegal. So it does not produce legal results. But they ask us to negotiate with Turkey on the faits accomplis that the invasion has created – and to legalize them ourselves.
— And the Turkish-Lybian memorandum is illegal and does not produce any legal faits accomplis. But Turkey is implementing it in practice and Greece is not reacting.
And in the future they will ask us to negotiate on this and legalize it.
Turkey creates and imposes faits accomplis and we question… the “legal results”.
Turkey is pursuing an expansionist-revisionist policy and the Greeks are responding as “practicing lawyers” of International Law.
Self-extinction of Greece!
(And by the way, marine parks can be created outside territorial waters. We have simply abdicated! The problem with Turkey’s marine parks is NOT that they extend outside its own territorial waters, but that they extend within our own sovereign rights – that is, within the Greek EEZ! And as “practicing lawyers” we are now talking nonsense…)
- They tell us that Greece cannot give up on dialogue with Turkey!
No one said to “give up” on the dialogue.
But your pursuit is not generally… “dialogue”.
You don’t run around shouting at the person who threatens you:
— Good sir, speak to me too, for I want to have a dialogue with you…
This is no longer “self-extinction” as a country. It’s self-ridiculing!
Greece’s goal is to nullify Turkish threats, find allies against Turkey, and adopt a credible Deterrent Policy that discourages the escalation of Turkish threats.
We are doing the exact opposite: we are encouraging the escalation of Turkish provocations, we are whitewashing Turkey in the eyes of third parties, and we are weakening any potential alliances we have against “friendly” Turkey.
We even distanced ourselves from Cyprus…
Even those at war generally engage in dialogue. That is why dialogue does NOT require – nor does it “presuppose” – declarations of friendship.
But “dialogue” is not an end in itself with the country that threatens you.
Unless you are self-resigned or desperate.
- If you want to be taken seriously, you come out and say the following:
— Turkey is not my friend. It threatens both me and Cyprus. And it violates International Law wherever it can.
— Anyone who does not see Turkey’s destabilizing policy undermines stability and security in the Middle East and the Eastern Mediterranean.
Greece will wait until you understand.
— If you, our European partners, are arming or giving orders to Turkey while it occupies the territories of one member state (Cyprus) and threatens another member state (Greece), then forget about the “strategic autonomy” of Europe!
Europe does not exist as an independent subject of geopolitical relationships when it strengthens third states that threaten its own member states. Simple as that.
How do you want to “name yourself” when you don’t exist?
— If you, the Americans, are strengthening Turkey, which supports Islamist networks everywhere and threatens Israel, Greece, Cyprus, Egypt, etc., then you do not have a long-term security policy in the Middle East.
We’ll wait until you understand it too.
Until then , we will ally with every country in the region that feels the threat from Turkey.
If you say these things – or something like them – they take you seriously. And you start having a Foreign Policy. If not, you just continue to… not even exist!
Except that these things don’t happen with Gerapetritis at the Foreign Ministry.
Not even with the current government.
They are now only made by another government.
Which will signal from the beginning that Greece has ceased to be a “hole on the map” and has returned as an “active player” in the region.
PS. 1. The government can no longer even convince its own people of the “calm waters”.
He tries to compare what is happening today with what happened under previous governments.
It labors in vain. Because there is no comparison:
We remind her that, no matter how many problems there were in the past.
— For the first time during the Mitsotakis government, the “Blue Homeland” existed as an official foreign policy doctrine.
— For the first time under the Mitsotakis government, there was a “Turkish-Lybian Memorandum”
— For the first time under the Mitsotakis government, there is an obstruction to the laying of a cable outside Kasos,
— For the first time under the Mitsotakis government, there is a Turkish Navtex lasting in half of the Aegean Sea
— For the first time under the Mitsotakis government, the Turks are establishing “parks” in seas under Greek jurisdiction – directly nullifying Greece’s sovereign rights.
— For the first time under the Mitsotakis government, a Greek Foreign Minister declares that he wants an agreement with Turkey “even if they call me a low bidder”…!
PS.2 The government boasts that it purchased modern French Belharra frigates and French Rafale fighter jets. Indeed…
But at the same time , Turkey is buying Eurofighters that it was NOT given before and weapons systems that it was also NOT given before (Scalp and Meteor).
And why shouldn’t they give it to her now? Since we Greeks declare that the Turks are our “friends” , why shouldn’t the French or Germans also sell weapons systems to “our friends”?
How can we protest to our European partners who arm Turkey, when we ourselves proclaim that it is… our “friend”?
PS.3. If you want them to start taking Greece seriously , they should say: yes, I am willing to consider full normalization of my relations with Turkey,
if first, they lift the casus belli (which violates the United Nations Charter),
if secondly, they lift the Turkish-Lybian memorandum (which violates the International Law of the Sea)
and if third, they accede to the UN Convention on the International Law of the Sea.
These completely elementary things now sound… “extreme”.
Think about how much we have… self-abolished as an independent sovereign state, that is, as an “active factor” in our region.
Greece should not simply “change” its foreign policy.
The government must change and exit the regime of self-resignation, self-abolition, self-undermining, and self-deprecation.
And the faster, the better…
THANASSIS K.
