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In an article on Newsbomb.gr, former Minister Sifis Valyrakis analyzes the tension in the Greek-Turkish positions: “Peace can only be guaranteed if we are determined to confront any threat in a dynamic way,” the former minister characteristically asserts.
The following is the full article by Mr. Valyrakis:
“We would like a peaceful neighbor, Turkey, which is unfortunately not the case. Modern Greece has never behaved aggressively against Turkey.
However, the Turkish challenges, as a fixed review strategy, started with the neo-Turkish movement and have continued ever since, constantly testing our resilience.
Under the pretext of naval research, the Turks questioned the Greek territorial waters in August 1976 with the oceanographic “TIME”. Andreas Papandreou, in opposition, declares: “You have sunk the” DANCE “.
In 1987, Turkey launched “Seismic” in the Aegean. It states that it does not recognize the continental shelf of the Greek islands or our territorial waters as Greek territory, its objective being the division of the Aegean.
It argues, contrary to the Law of the Sea, that the islands do not have their own continental shelf or airspace. The Greek islands of the East Aegean, that is, according to Ankara, sit on a Turkish continental shelf and are surrounded by Turkish airspace. Turkey still believes that the Greek Aegean islands are on the “wrong side”.
A. Papandreou as Prime Minister immediately orders a partial mobilization. Greek warships sail with orders to engage the Turks. The air force is on a battle line. Greece gathers troops in Evros, where it has a strategic advantage over Turkey, negotiates with Bulgaria and suspends the operation of the US base in Nea Makri. The Turks Retreat!
In 1996, however, Greece lost sovereignty in the Imia Islands area. The Imia crisis must be a lesson for us. The Turks occupy eastern Imya on the night of January 31 and leave only after the US intervention. Since then, the area has remained “disputed.” Imya “turned gray” because Greece withdrew militarily under pressure from Turkey.
Lesson learned: If our national borders or our sovereign rights are threatened, we protect them with our Armed Forces. Peace can only be guaranteed if we are determined to confront any threat energetically.
Following the hybrid attack on Greece in Evros, Ankara is escalating its challenges. Turkey ostentatiously converts the Hagia Sophia and the Chora Monastery, unique monuments of Christianity, into a mosque and at the same time denounces Greece for restricting the freedoms of the Muslim minority that it illegally calls “Turkish”.
The “NATO ally” Turkey insists on flagrantly violating our sovereign rights with the “Oruts Kings” by conducting investigations on the Greek continental shelf in the illegal NAFTEX zone, accompanied by Turkish warships and NATO maintaining a policy of equality.
Germany and the EU that tolerate if they do not welcome the Turkish military occupation in a member state of the Union, Cyprus, urge for dialogue. It is a constant aspiration of Turkey itself to sit at the table of a Greek-Turkish negotiating dialogue on all issues.
The only problem with Turkey is legal and concerns the procedures for delimiting economic zones, not their distribution, which is a question of power relations. It is not possible to have a political dialogue on the sovereign rights that Greece will grant to Turkey.
It is true that no war between Greece and Turkey benefits any country with interests in the region as a whole. At the same time, no one wants to allow Ankara to overthrow the status quo in the eastern Mediterranean in their favor. So Greece has a wide diplomatic field to move.
Greece’s agreements on the delimitation of the EEZ with Italy and Egypt are of particular positive importance. We should also speed up the delimitation of the EEZ with the Republic of Cyprus.
Greece must expand, in accordance with international law, its coastal zone, its territorial waters, from six to 12 nautical miles in the Aegean Sea.. The same applies to the harmonization and expansion of the Greek national airspace, from ten to 12 miles.
Greece must proceed immediately and without further delay to expand its national sovereignty over the air and sea (equivalent to “land”) in the Aegean, as it is entitled, and not succumb to the pressures leading to its contraction.
Greece needs a timely deterrence strategy, it must be seriously prepared for the possibility of a military confrontation with Turkey. It doesn’t matter what is officially declared, what is cleverly channeled to the public. What matters is what is promoted in secret, seeking to strengthen defensive capabilities and at the same time detect and target in an organized way, without drumbeats, the existing weaknesses of the opposing side.
It requires sobriety but also determination. The proper military preparation of the Greek armed forces is fully capable of teaching a harsh lesson if Turkey insists on its offensive actions.
Athens 8/30/2020
Sifis Valyrakis-Former Minister “.
