In addition to Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the president of SYRIZA, Stefanos Kasselakis, the president of PASOK, Nikos Androulakis, and a very significant number of MPs who expressed their wish will be in Cyprus. From the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in addition to Giorgos Gerapetritis, will be Deputy Minister Alexandra Papadopoulou and the director of the Prime Minister’s diplomatic office, Anna-Maria Boura. Also the leader of GEETHA, general Dimitris Houpis, and probably also the leaders of the three Weapons.
At the same time, the Turks with a series of their movements and a few 24 hours before the Turkish president, Tayyip Erdogan, goes to the occupied territories, are escalating the tension that started with the attack they made on the Minister of National Defense, Nikos Dendias.
Apart from the incident where they “set up” the Greek singer Despina Vandi in Izmir, who wanted her to sing under a giant Turkish flag and a huge photo of Kemal Atatürk, yesterday we had two Turkish violations of the national airspace in the Southeast Aegean following a while , while in the followingnoon the Turkish Authorities through the Antalya station issued their own NAVTEX (0671/24), with which they declare that part of the investigations concern the area of the Turkish continental shelf. They even hasten to refer to the letter that Turkey sent to the UN on March 18, 2020, in which it unilaterally and arbitrarily declared the external limits of its EEZ.
With this letter, essentially for the first time, Turkey’s claim to the Blue Homeland, which reaches to the eastern limits of the territorial waters of the Greek islands in the region, was officially recorded. The Turkish Authorities further state that all research activities in the area of ”Turkish maritime jurisdiction” should be coordinated by the competent Turkish Authorities.
It is characteristic that, according to the coordinates of the surveys of the specific vessel, the area is located on the border of the territorial waters of the Karpathos, which shows the persistence of Turkey to invent reasons in order to secure on the ground what has been done. Greece and other countries in the region have rejected Turkey’s unilateral declaration of the supposed outer limits of the EEZ, which blatantly violates the provisions of the Law of the Sea.
For his part, however, Kyriakos Mitsotakis from the meeting of the European Political Community, which keeps alive the relationship between the European Union and Great Britain, referring to the 50th anniversary of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, emphasized that “July 20 marks 50 years since the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, which led to the occupation of one third of the island.
It is the last divided European territory. I hope that this issue will finally be resolved and that discussions between the two communities will continue under the auspices of the United Nations, always in accordance with the resolutions of the Security Council, which set the framework for the resolution of this long-standing problem.”
Kyriakos Mitsotakis also referred to the new British Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, for whom he wished “the best in his new duties”, adding that “I appreciate that he will work for constructive EU-Britain cooperation”.
In fact, on the sidelines of the fourth European Political Community Summit, Kyriakos Mitsotakis met with his British counterpart, Sir Keir Starmer. Among other things, the Greek Prime Minister emphasized the importance of Greek-British relations and expressed his satisfaction with the fact that the United Kingdom wants a productive relationship with the EU.
It is worth noting that the two leaders agreed to have a bilateral meeting soon. According to diplomatic sources, the good atmosphere between them was also seen in November, when the Greek Prime Minister met Keir Starmer as the leader of the official opposition at the Greek embassy residence in London.
Finally, speaking regarding immigration, the prime minister noted that “I know that the E.U. has focused on the issue of protecting the external borders and I think that is the right priority.” He also reminded that “we have adopted the migration pact which is important”, stressing that “at the same time we must work with the countries of origin to reduce illegal immigration. Greece has worked constructively with Turkey to ensure that it is not the traffickers who decide who reaches the EU, but the sovereign states.
#message #national #solidarity #Cyprus
