Alternate Minister of Foreign Affairs Miltiadis Varvitsiotis spoke today of an “orchestrated attack on Greece” and “ an attempt at misinformation from the part of the Turkish side”, in an interview with SKAI radio station and journalists Dimitris Oikonomou and Eva Antonopoulou.
In particular, the Alternate Minister, commenting on the accusations against the Greek Coast Guard that it is responsible for the death of two refugees in Samos, stressed that he has “the greatest respect for the men and women of the Coast Guard, who save lives at sea and not the opposite”, and noted that, as evidenced by visual material with many incidents released by Athens, Greece has nothing to do with such practices, on the contrary it is the other side that is involved in them.
Mr. Varvitsiotis also pointed out that the Turkish state exploited the death from the cold of 13 people, including five Somalis, “ten kilometers inside the Turkish border and in a military zone of Turkey” to openly blame Greece. On the sidelines of the EU-African Union Summit, he briefed Somali Foreign Minister Abdisaid Muse Ali on the incident “for which Greece can in no way be held responsible”, who - as he said – “realized the extent of the misinformation attempted by the Turkish side”.
“In the face of this orchestrated attack and misinformation campaign Greece responds in a coherent and systematic manner” he said, accusing Ankara of not applying the EU-Turkey Statement of 2016. “Turkey is a safe third country and should accept the readmission of asylum seekers whose application has been rejected. Greece on the other hand “has contained the flow of illegal migrants and for this reason is congratulated by a number of countries, which in turn respond to the Turkish claims in an appropriate manner”. He pointed out that the government employs the tools of diplomacy and arguments to inform friends and allies about the extent of Turkish provocation, while at the same time it has taken serious steps to strengthen National Defence.
January 18, 2022