EDITOR’S NOTE (Nick Stamatakis): After years of watching Greek political leadership display a senseless “defeatism” in every shape or form against Turkey, finally Foreign Minister Mr. Dendias showed some spine today in answering all Turkish claims and especially their claim on the Aegean Islands and the Muslim minority in Thrace – which they insist calling a Turkish minority despite their signature on the 1923 Lausanne Treaty.  And he certainly exposed in front of the Turkish press the hundreds of violations by Turkish AF not of Greek air space, not of Greek territorial waters, but of Greek territory!!…

Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu was clearly surprised by the energetic, “high voltage” responses of the usually “polite” and “reserved” Mr.Dendias and chose to reply twice… (You can see the fireworks in the video below where Mr. Dendias speaks at about 9:00 and 26:00 and finally at 33:00).  It was a rare time that the Turkish press had to listen to the opposing side tell it like it is – and the spectacle was worth watching… 

But a good performance at a press conference certainly will not change the whole picture. Especially because the Mitsotakis family is at the helm in Greece and they are collectively known to “make deals” behind the scenes that usually do not benefit Greece.  I was unfortunate enough to watch very closely Constantinos Mitsotakis “deal away” the “Name of Macedonia” issue in the early 1990s: While President Clinton had assumed a very clear pro-Greek position before the elections of 1992 (No “Macedonia” in any part of the name) a few months after the elections Mitsotakis himself (!!), through a despicable letter by his foreign minister, asked Pres. Clinton to accept the idiotic name FYROM…  Later, we all have been watching Dora Bakoyiannis (former FM of Greece) take particularly soft positions and no actions against Turkey for years.   

Historically, the danger in Greece has usually been “within the walls”…

BELOW YOU CAN WATCH THE VIDEO AND READ THE NEWS IN GREEK AND ENGLISH

==========================================================

Διπλωματική αντιπαράθεση σε ανώτατο επίπεδο… Σθεναρή τοποθέτηση του Έλληνα ΥΠΕΞ στις κοινές δηλώσεις με τον Τούρκο Υπουργό Εξωτερικών Μελβούτ Τσαβούσογλου!!

ΜΠΡΑ-ΝΤΕ-ΦΕΡ (ΧΕΙΡΟΠΑΛΗ)

ΑΥΤΟ ΕΓΙΝΕ…

Δείτε ΕΔΩ το σχετικό ΒΙΝΤΕΟ με τις σχετικές δηλώσεις

Η ανάρτηση του ΥΠ/ΕΞ της Τουρκίας στο Twitter:

===========================================

Dendias corrects Çavuşoğlu on “Turkish minority in Greece, only Muslim

Dendias corrected Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu’s false claim that a Turkish minority exists in Western Thrace.

“There is a Muslim minority in Greece, it is recognized by the Treaty of Lausanne, this is the view of the Greek state.,” Dendias said during their joint statements following their meeting in Ankara on Thursday.

Turkey’s own Foreign Ministry website affirms that there is only a Muslim minority in the Treaty of Lausanne Part VI Article 2 that states:

“Moslems established in the region to the east of the frontier line laid down in 1918 by the Treaty of Bucharest shall be considered as Moslem inhabitants of Western Thrace.”

When speaking of Cyprus, Dendias said to Çavuşoğlu that “the only solution that is accepted by the entire international community is the bi-zonal-bi-communal federation of Cyprus.”

Regarding Hagia Sophia, the Greek foreign minister said: “We believe that such a reversal is in the interest of Turkey in general. Greece and Turkey are destined by geography to live together.”

He also formally invited Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to Athens to meet Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

When Çavuşoğlu claimed that Greece was an aggressive country, Dendias highlighted that “Turkey has made 400 overflights over Greek territory.”

“Mevlüt, there is no provision allowing flights over Greek territory (…) If Turkey wants to join the EU, it must accept the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea,” the foreign minister said.

In addressing Turkey’s recent statements that it wants to join the European Union, Dendias said “Greece is ready to start slowly on a positive agenda with Turkey.”

“This does not mean abandoning international law and European norms,” he continued, adding “the EU is not a third party but it is our family.”

“It is the proudest example of the coexistence of states in the history of the human race (…) I would suggest that we do not lead to an endless dialogue on what we know we disagree about,” the foreign minister said.