“If someone believes that Greece is saying one thing abroad and another domestically, they are mistaken. Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ instructions are that we speak the same language, the language of truth, everywhere. We always fight for our rights, seriously and respectably. We always want dialogue, but we will not back down from our red lines”.
This was stressed by Alternate Minister of Foreign Affairs Miltiadis Varvitsiotis, from Rome where he is on an official visit, during an interview on the prime-time newscast of STAR channel, with Mara Zacharea, drawing on the joint statements made by Minister of Foreign Affairs Nikos Dendias with Turkey’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Cavusoglu, in Ankara.
More specifically, in response to the question of whether there is any room for normalising Greek-Turkish relations, Mr Varvitsiotis noted that the message sent by the Greek minister was that unilateral provocative actions must be avoided by Ankara. That is also the main requirement set for Turkey by the EU for the normalisation of EU-Turkey relations. He added that dialogue is the only way to resolve differences. “It would be the opposite if, instead of a clash of words, we saw a clash in the field. I think things would be much worse then. I think it is better for us to clash, even in front of television cameras, highlighting our differences, but finding, in the end, a way to move forward together”, he added.
