DM Dendias: We talk With Turkey But We Always Bring Up Their Unacceptable Positions

Day two of the highly anticipated two-day conference “Metapolitefsi 1974-2024: 50 Years of Greek Foreign Policy” took place on Thursday in Athens, with Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis taking center stage before discussions took place with ex-PM Alexis Tsipras, PASOK president Nikos Androulakis and some of the top analysts in the field.

Defense Minister Nikos Dendias also addressed the conference, taking place in a downtown Athens hotel, and also fielded questions, both over his current portfolio and with his standing as the previous foreign minister.

The event coincides with the 50 years since the restoration of democracy in Greece, an utterly transformative period described in the country with the single word “Metapolitefsi”, which in Greek means “regime change” or “regime transition”.

The milestone event was organized by the newspaper “To Vima”, The Council for International Relations and the Delphi Economic Forum.

In touching on the subject that took up a good portion of the deliberations at the Conference, namely, Greek-Turkish relations and Athens’ position vis-à-vis Ankara’s positions, claims and challenges over the past 50 years but especially over the very recent period, Dendias noted that “we’re talks with Turkey, however, we always cite the unacceptable Turkish positions”.

In taking an account of the wider regional situation at hand, Dendias said “…war has returned to Europe and the world, and Turkey has been veering towards neo-Ottoman models ever since. Indeed, it (Ankara) is slowly expanding its agenda of claims against our country. We must talk with Turkey, but we always bring up the unacceptable aspects of Turkish positions.”

Beyond the focus on Turkey, Dendias reminded that Greece’s political system in the past always found a way to agree on common ground over fundamental parameters of foreign policy, citing the country’s accession to the EU, its membership in NATO, the establishment of relations with the State of Israel, the national position vis-à-vis the breakup of the former Yugoslavia, and, what he called the “biggest triumph” of recent memory in Greek foreign policy: Cyprus’ accession to the European Union.

In mention Turkey in this “bundle”, Dendias also said Athens’ fundamental policy change to support Turkey’s European prospects is also among these successes.

In a question referring to his current portfolio, defense, the Corfu-elected deputy said an “Iron Dome”-type system eyed by the Greek armed forces will focus on being an anti-drone deterrent.

Finally, asked about the Hellenic military’s structure and strategy, Dendias called for a “complete change” in mentality.

“A structure of forces based on a Napoleon-like approach showed us, in Ukraine for instance, that it’s not only yesteryear, but the year before that. There are citizens (in Greece) who say we’re spending too much on defense. However, we must see what the threat is, and what the latter spends on defense, in order to see whether what we’re spending is high or low.”

Source: tovima.com