[ad_1]
Exercising delicate diplomatic balances is for our country the subject of dialogue with Turkey, for the beginning of which partners and allies are pushing, sometimes with little grace or throwing water into the Ankara mill, as NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who was later forced to collect his statements..
Write the Vicky samara
And this as on the one hand the Hellas it cannot appear to be refusing dialogue at a time when Turkey, while continuing the challenges in the Aegean, at the same time tries to appear as … a compromise.
Notably, this is the second time “secret” conversations have leaked between the two sides, with Ankara suddenly playing “good guy”, hungry for dialogue. It is recalled that the Turkish presidency had revealed the start of talks at the official level in Berlin with German mediation. Germany as well as NATO they have their own geostrategic interests in the Eastern Mediterranean, and since Trump is busy with the upcoming US presidential elections, there is a gap in international diplomacy in the region.
The Turkish games with threats on the one hand and statements about “kazan kazan” on the other, of course, are not due to changes in the mood of the “Sultan”, but are part of a specific strategy in Athens to drag Greece away. to bilateral talks. but under threat or under the status of perpetrators, possibly even a heated episode. In this case, the country’s negotiating potential would be reduced, since the priority would be to regain sovereignty or territory and the other party would request a significant participation in the EEZ.
The Greek government has made it clear at all levels that this is not going to happen, saying that dialogue can only begin when Turkey downsizes by withdrawing the Oruc Reis and its warships from the maritime zone south of Kastelorizo.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis himself took the opportunity yesterday to meet with the leader of the Communist Party of China, Yang Jiechi, to address, although it was not planned in Ankara and indirectly to the allies, without referring to NATO, while At the same time, government spokesman Stelios Petsas criticized Stoltenberg and asked him to take his position seriously.
Mitsotakis’s message referred to the firm position of the Greek government: first de-escalation and then dialogue. But Athens, in addition to the conditions, also marks the limits of the dialogue: that is, dialogue means the resumption of the exploration that was stopped under the responsibility of Turkey in 2016, with the sole object of the only difference that Greece recognizes, namely , the continental shelf and the definition of maritime zones and open zones. the possibility of an appeal to The Hague following a joint declaration.
But beyond diplomatic reasons, Greece has an essential reason for really wanting dialogue: without negotiation, the EEZ will never be demarcated. Of course, there are voices within the country, but also within the SW, who say no to any dialogue with Turkey, betting on “hyperpatriotism”. Such a mood is especially prevalent in the Samaritan camp. However, the fact that Greece appears to deny any dialogue, apart from the dangers of diplomatic isolation, carries, as mentioned, the risk that a solution will never be found. And this, as is obvious to any realist, observers emphasize, that the issue of the EEZ cannot be resolved unilaterally.
Typically, the Minister of Infrastructure and Transportation, Costas Karamanlis, pointed out (Parapolitika FM) that without negotiation there is no SEZ and stressed that whoever denies this basic truth denies the delimitation and exercise of sovereign rights, that is, whoever says no to dialogue about any topic. substance or mislead or mislead public opinion.
Of course, in any case, we are still a long way from a debate with prospects for The Hague. The only time the two countries had reached an agreement to appeal to The Hague on the issue of the continental shelf was during Prime Minister Konstantinos Karamanlis and especially when Greece was out of NATO.
And it’s not just the Alliance complicating things rather than helping to alleviate them, but so are the European partners. In Athens, however, they have discovered that the politics of appeasement and that of European Turkey have ended. Former Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis was the first to make this statement, stating that Helsinki has already ended and proposing a Euro-Turkish deal on three axes: Turkey-EU economic relations, immigration, and Turkey’s compliance with international standards.
[ad_2]
