Following a meeting with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic in Athens on Tuesday, President of the Hellenic Republic Prokopis Pavlopoulos warned neighbouring Turkey that Greece will defend its borders, its territory and its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), which are also the borders, territory and EEZ of the European Union, alongside the international community and the EU.
In joint statements with Vucic, the Greek president referred to relations with Turkey, noting that Greece desires relations of friendship and good neighbourliness. He said that Greece was sincere in supporting Turkey’s European perspective but stressed that Turkey must also be sincere, while all recent signs indicated the opposite.
“The neighbouring country does not respect the basic principles on which its European perspective must be based, such as respect for international and European law,” Pavlopoulos said. “On the contrary, all signs in the recent period are in the direction of violating the fundamental principles of European and international law,” the Greek president added, citing the recent military invasion in Syria or Turkey’s handling of the refugee issue, where he accused Ankara of violating both international law and its agreement with the EU.
In addition, he said, Ankara was violating or attempting to violate Greece’s sovereign rights and not respecting fundamental principles linked to the territory, borders and EEZ of Greece, which are also those of the EU, and doing so systematically in the recent period, as in the memoranda signed with the Tripoli government in Libya. This was an issue of huge importance, and not just for Greece, he added.
Pavlopoulos insisted that this agreement was legally and institutionally void – not simply illegal or irregular as some have asserted. He also pointed out that the fundamental conditions for drawing up such an agreement did not exist in this case, since there was an issue with the legitimacy of the Tripoli government, the Libyan parliament was opposed to it, the head of the Fleet was completely opposed and no one was certain who the purported prime minister of Libya actually represented.
In addition, the Greek president noted, the memorandum violated the international law of the sea, since the islands of Rhodes and Crete were simply not on the map, as far as it is concerned. “There are only Turkey’s thoughts about how it perceives its imperial fantasies,” Pavlopoulos added, while stressing that these must be taken seriously, however much they border on the ridiculous, since they reflect Turkey’s intentions.
“We Greeks, alongside Europe and the international community, are not prepared to put up with the arbitrary actions of the Turkish leadership. Greece will fully defend, along with the international community and the EU, its borders, its territory, its EEZ that are also the borders, territory and EEZ of the EU,” the president added.
In his own statements, Vucic stressed that Serbia will always recognise the territory and integrity of Greece and Cyprus.
Source: ANA-MPA