Gerapetritis: Sovereignty issues are never going to be on the discussion table with Turkiye

Sovereignty issues are never going to be on the discussion table with Turkiye and we will defend our sovereign rights, Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis said on Friday in an interview with SKAI TV.

Specifically, Gerapetritis referred to his meeting on Thursday with his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan saying that it was held in a good climate and all the issues that needed to be raised were raised, while the main agenda was the Euro-Turkish and Greek-Turkish issues as well as the Cyprus issue.

On the Greek-Turkish issues, Gerapetritis said that at his meeting with Fidan he raised the issues that emerged recently, among them the issue of Kassos as well as the preparation of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in New York in September. On Cyprus, he said that the restart of the talks is progressing and estimated that there is an understanding that both sides should sit at the dialogue table, and underlined that the Cypriot side has a creative attitude, something that the Greek side expects from Turkey as well.

Gerapetritis noted that Greece has a consistent and strict attitude towards Turkey and added that the choice made by the government was to proceed with the normalization of Greek-Turkish relations and to move on if it is found that it is possible for the two sides to enter into more complex issues that will ensure long term calmness.

He stated that he was satisfied on how things have gone so far in the Greek-Turkish relations and referred to what happened in the past with the migration, the violations, and the aggressive rhetoric, noting that today migration is not a major problem, while Greece’s airspace is not being violated.

“The choice we made when I took over the Ministry of Foreign Affairs by order of the Prime Minister was to proceed with a normalisation of the Greek-Turkish relations and to gradually see how it is possible to enter into more complex issues, which will ensure us a long calmness in our wider region.

Making an assessment 13 months after assuming duties, I feel satisfied on how things have developed. I just want to remember what the situation was in the previous years. I want us to remember migration. In 2015, 2016 with 1.5 million undocumented migrants crossing the Aegean.

I want us to remember hundreds of violations of the Greek airspace, which were carried out with the risk of a hot episode and of course war risks. And of course let’s remember what was happening in relation to political offensive rhetoric. Right now, as we speak, migration is not a major problem. It is controlled. There is a good coordination,” Gerapetritis said.