Issue No. 13366

 

THE ONLY territorial dispute Greece is willing to discuss with Turkey involves the delimitation of the Aegean continental shelf, and that with a view to referring the issue to the International Court of Justice at The Hague, Alternate Defence Minister Panos Beglitis said in an interview with the Athens News

 

The alternate minister’s insistence came as Prime Minister George Papandreou is preparing his response to Turkey’s demand for a sweeping dialogue on the Aegean.

 

“We have well-grounded arguments that the only essential dispute is over the continental shelf,” Beglitis said. “We are ready to enter a dialogue on that issue and to jointly refer it to the ICJ. This is a clear-cut proposal by Greece to peacefully resolve our dispute.”

 

Ankara, he added, should first accept the court’s mandatory jurisdiction and sign the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

 

“This is Greece’s national strategy, supported by a broad spectrum of political forces, and we will remain faithful to this national strategy.”

 

Few know Papandreou’s thinking on foreign policy better than Beglitis, who served as spokesman for the foreign ministry from 1999 to 2004, and remained a close confidant later as a Eurodeputy and now a Corinth MP. 

 

Beglitis thus suggested the government will reject any dialogue on Turkey’s territorial claims in the Aegean.

 

Alternate Foreign Minister Dimitris Droutsas has already rejected Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s call for a dialogue on the Muslim minority of Western Thrace.

 

 

“Unfortunately, Turkey seeks with military pressure to change the international legal status quo in the Aegean. Ankara will achieve nothing this way,” Beglitis said.

 

The alternate defence minister described the government’s approach to meeting Turkey’s challenges. “We must always have a strong military and an effective deterrent. That requires reorganisation of the armed forces, rationalisation of defence spending and strengthening cooperation between the branches of the military, so we can handle Turkey if we must,” he said. 

 

Secondly, the defence ministry aims to mobilise diplomatic support in both the EU and Nato to respond to Turkish challenges to the Aegean.

 

“In the EU, we will highlight Ankara’s revisionist policy. Greece will participate actively in shaping the EU’s common foreign and defence policy. In Nato, Greece’s stance cannot be taken for granted. We will defend our national interests based on international law and treaties,” he said.

 

Beglitis conceded that Greece has found little solidarity in dealing with Turkish challenges from either its EU partners or its Nato allies, but said the government hopes to craft a new, more effective strategy. He said Nato allies, including the United States, have all too often chosen a Pontius Pilate-like stance towards the Aegean, and Nato exercises there, and Greece will seek to avert that in the future.

 

 

He noted that challenges to Greek sovereignty over eastern Aegean islands have escalated in terms of both the number and gravity of violations, with frequent, low-altitude flights by Turkish warplanes over inhabited Greek islands.

 

“In the long term, Turkey’s strategic aim may be exploitation and co-management of natural resources in the Aegean and broader southeast Mediterranean. But Turkey’s first target is to undermine with political means the legal status quo in the Aegean and treaties that govern it,” he noted.

 

On the controversial issue of having a Turkish commander (in rotation with a Greek) at Nato’s Larisa command, Beglitis said the Pasok government recognises no such decision by the previous ND government. He stressed that the political decision will be taken by Nato, in February, and Greece will negotiate on the principle that “nothing is agreed to until everything is agreed”.

 

“The government will use all its capabilities as an equal Nato member to defend Greek national interests,” he said.

ATHENS NEWS 08/03/2010, page: 13