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Shortly before his arrival in Greece for the second time in a year, Mike Pompeo welcomed the start of exploratory contacts between Greece and Turkey through his conversation with Jens Stoltenberg and highlighted “the importance of the unity of the NATO Alliance».
Souda and Incirlik
However, the two-day visit (tomorrow and the day after) by the US Secretary of State is seen by the Greek government as clear support for Athens’s positions vis-à-vis Vis Ankara, while US diplomacy emphasizes the historically level top of Greek-American relations.
The Secretary of State of the United States is expected to land at “Macedonia” airport at midnight, as Mr. Pompeo’s first stop in Greece will be Thessaloniki. There he will be received by his Greek counterpart Nikos Dendias.
The next stop on Pompeo’s visit to Greece will be Crete and specifically Chania where he will be received by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
Naturally, the issue of exploratory contacts will be discussed, but according to the State Department, the main purpose of the visit is to highlight the strategic nature of bilateral cooperation, with special emphasis on the energy and defense sectors.
It is important that Mike Pompeo is in both Thessaloniki and Crete instead of Athens, while his visit to Greece will not be followed by a visit to Turkey.
The messages from the Americans are twofold: first, their interest in northern Greece in the context of its competition with Russia for the Balkans.
Second, it is no accident that Mr. Pompeo will also visit the base of Souda as this visit coincides with discussions in Washington about the relocation of the US base in Incirlik.
Turkey road map
Shortly before the arrival of the US Secretary of State and the resumption of Greece’s 61st round of exploratory contacts with Turkey, as well as the EU Summit on October 1 and 2 (Thursday and Friday), Ankara seems to want to boost the weather. .
In the last two – three 24 hours there is a sequence of events showing specific intentions and apparently a “double sided” by Tayyip Erdogan.
First of all Advisor to Turkish President Ibrahim Kalin He went on to reveal that in addition to the exploratory contacts, the start of which he announced next week, political and military talks will be held simultaneously, according to Kalin, between Athens and Ankara.
“These are two most important talks,” he stressed, between Greece and Turkey, which will cover the full range of Greek-Turkish relations. In essence, the military talks are, or rather are, a continuation of the talks taking place within NATO and the Stoltenberg Crisis Prevention Mechanism.
the The question mark refers to the type of political conversations. to which the adviser to the Turkish president is referring, who, however, described as an Ankara quest a roadmap for a broader negotiation between Greece and Turkey, saying that “we hope, hope and plan that this negotiation process begins with a triple form: exploratory conversations, consultations and military conversations. “
Rodas and Kastelorizo are the center of attention
At the same time, Turkey insists on the strategy of Navtex publications that challenge Greek sovereignty in the Greek Aegean islands, raising the question of demilitarization. This time, Turkey yesterday it occupied an area between Rhodes and Kastelorizo for a live fire exercise on September 29, while today the war of nerves continued from Ankara taking the Oruc Reis… to enter and exit the port of Antalya.
The ship had returned from the eastern Mediterranean after returning “for refueling and maintenance”, as Defense Minister Hulusi Akar, Energy Minister Fatih Donmez and Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoγlu had repeatedly stated.
Some of the Turkish media, mainly pro-government, link this move to yesterday’s Navtex in Ankara, which is blocking an area between Rhodes and Kastelorizo on September 29.
At the same time, police investigations are ongoing to find out the conditions in which the insult to the Greek flag on the rock took place over the Kastelorizo settlement, which was painted in the color of the Turkish flag, but also in Drone flight for half an hour over the remote island., during which the national anthem of Turkey and the Ottoman raids were heard from the loudspeakers he brought.
The condemnation of the incident by the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs who asked the Turkish authorities to clarify the case and punish the guilty.
According to the Turkish media, this action was carried out by a group of Turkish nationalist engineers in retaliation for the burning of a Turkish flag in Thessaloniki.
Turkish narrative
Against this background you can read the Tayyip Erdogan letter who in a letter to European leaders -except Greece and Cyprus- with a view to the EU Summit raises a list of demands, speaks of unconditional dialogue and presents the well-known narrative that those responsible for the tension in the East The Mediterranean are Greece and Cyprus.
The Turkish president accuses Athens and Nicosia, claiming that they intend to “imprison” Ankara within the Gulf of Antalya (Map of Seville). In fact, Tayyip Erdogan is essentially calling for natural gas from the Cyprus EEZ to be shared without a solution to the Cyprus problem.
Maas message for exploratory
In this context, the core of the Greek government’s strategy is to avoid an escalation of tensions with Turkey. It is characteristic that the line of Athens facing the EU Summit is that sanctions are approved but not applied against Turkey.
Of course, the issue of sanctions is downgraded anyway, while recent reports in the German press essentially confirmed that Germany is investing in the bilateral dialogue between Greece and Turkey and wants to avoid imposing sanctions on Ankara at all costs.
German Foreign Minister Haiko Maas described the announcement of the resumption of exploratory contacts between Athens and Ankara as particularly good and important news.
In an exclusive statement to “Kathimerini tis Kyriakis” he admits that the road remains difficult. However, he is convinced that the issues at stake between the two parties can only be resolved through dialogue on the basis of international law.
“If there is an opportunity to do this at this juncture, we must seize it,” he said, noting that Germany was ready to do everything possible to support this dialogue process.
Sanctions must be approved
However, its publication is interesting for discussions within the Greek government. secretary of the parliamentary group of ND Stavros Kalafatis who stressed that sanctions should be adopted as a deterrent and as a means of pressure on Turkey for dialogue.
The need for approval by the EU Summit of a sanctions package for Turkey, which will have a dissuasive role and will remain on the table for any case of the neighboring country’s return to unilateral actions, emphasizes in a post on its Facebook account the Secretary General of the Parliamentary Group of ND Stavros Kalafatis.
Kalafatis points out that “those who propose prevention” and “those who do not want the application of sanctions”, we have every reason to come to the same conclusion: the objective is not to impose sanctions, but to prevent illegal Turkish actions against Greece, stability in the region and European interests and the more painful consequences they may have, the more unlikely they will be ignored by the neighbor and applied by Europe.
Emphasizing the effectiveness of Greece’s policy towards Turkey, recently, the KO secretary general states that “there is no longer any doubt that the political, diplomatic and military mobilization against the Turkish provocation dragged events in the direction of Greek positions. “and” the demand of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis “to stop the provocations and start discussions” “was accepted internationally and imposed in Ankara.” He adds that “the unconditional support of France in our country, but also the intervention of both Germany and the United States. United, it had an incomprehensible effect in that sense. On the neighbor. “
Not at all accidental
Kalafatis does not consider it a coincidence that the withdrawal of the Turkish investigation from the Greek mainland occurred just days before the EU Summit, scheduled for September 24, with a foreign affairs agenda. Union policy, including its relations with Turkey. He recalled that the decision on the sanctions package proposed by the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs was debated in August in the Council of Foreign Ministers and referred to the Summit.
It shows, adds Kalafatis in his post, that the threat of severe sanctions to the neighbor, combined with the determination of the Greek side, can act as a deterrent, serve peace in the region and promote European interests. At the same time, it became clear that the more painful the threatened sanctions, the more the neighbor takes them into account. And so it is more unlikely that you need to implement it.
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