“On Friday, the Prime Minister will raise – as he always does in the context of geopolitical debates with his European counterparts – the question of Turkish a provocation,” a government spokesman said in a TV interview with Mega. Yannis Oikonomou pointing out about a possible meeting with Erdogan that “no one excludes anything until we have instructions in this direction. The agenda of the first day of the summit includes issues of broader geopolitical and economic interest.”

He also stressed that “every time we say ‘they have outdone themselves’ and every time they deny us. Mr. Bahceli is a partner of Mr. Erdogan, and yesterday he questioned the sovereignty of all the Aegean islands that do not exist outside of history, intensifying this rhetorical escalation of provocation.”

He recalled that Mr. Erdogan “was the one who exploded relations between the two leaders, Mr. Erdogan was the one who said ‘Mitsotakis is a yoke’, Mr. Erdogan was the one who called on the citizens of Greece to vote. against Mitsotakis. All these efforts do not find a response anywhere in the international community. The latest, most recent attempt to distort reality by activating the illegal, extrajudicial Pact that Turkey signed with Libya met with disapproval from the world community. From our European partners to the Libyan opposition and yesterday’s European Union officials to the State Department, all the Turks get is condemnation and strong advice to stop these revisionism and tactics.”

He also stressed that “it is obvious that if Mr. Erdogan demands a meeting with Mr. Mitsotakis, then it is clear that there he will be asked to explain what all these absurd, outrageous, completely unhistorical and non-existent things are. The debate, as far as our side is concerned, always has fixed and red lines: international law, our sovereign rights, our national sovereignty, respect for treaties, political and legal acts of the world, after the Second World War is the environment. in which Greece is always discussing with the opposite side, looking for areas where we could have joint action to face the challenges that concern both peoples.

If a request is made, we will evaluate it and respond positively. We are not in a hurry, this is reality. Kyriakos Mitsotakis is the leader of a confident country, a country that over the past three years has been systematically strategizing on two fronts: both diplomatically and strengthening the country’s deterrence capacity. We cannot determine what Turkey will do and how it will move. We can interpret the reasons why they do this in terms of their internal situation, their economic hardship, the choices they have, or their traditional strategy of trying to create problems and build reality according to their own standards.

In this regard, Mr. Economou emphasized that “the stake of responsible leadership – and this is what the government has achieved over the past three years – is to get the big picture right. This is what Kyriakos Mitsotakis has been doing since 2019. He strengthened the international position of the country, degraded as a result of bankruptcy, as well as the foreign policy of the previous period. He has strengthened the Armed Forces, their deterrence capacity on the ground, so that no one can panic or corner us at the last minute.

International law, the agreements that our country has signed, and the deterrence capacity we have are sufficient guarantees to effectively address any challenge. The country will in no case allow its international legitimacy and sovereign rights to be challenged. We always and diplomatically put all these efforts to ensure that any dimension of deterrence there is limited, but we have also proven in the past that on the ground, when we were challenged, we responded effectively.

We must be vigilant. We cannot be politically or historically naive. We cannot take this prolonged provocation by Turkey lightly. On the other hand, we remain calm, we have no reason to panic or be afraid, precisely because we have sufficient political strength and sufficient deterrence capacity so that we can effectively face any challenge. Anything that is contrary to international law and infringes on our sovereignty and sovereign rights is unacceptable and will not be allowed. And this applies not only to Greece. This concerns our allies, our partners, the international community, the world political scene and public opinion, which does not want and does not need, along with Putin’s revisionism and the war in Ukraine, and other hotbeds of tension either in the Aegean or in the Southeast Mediterranean.

Greece is the protagonist of the plan to combat the energy crisis

Mr. Economou also noted that “we managed to create a group of 15 countries that, in fact, demand a ceiling on the price of natural gas. The Greek Prime Minister began last March with a series of proposals for a ceiling, joint supply and price decoupling of electricity from natural gas. The problem is pan-European and requires a European response. Our country is a leading player in the fight against the energy crisis. The Greek consumer pays for electricity at the second lowest price in Europe. Our design is accepted by many European countries. I’m talking about a pricing model that offsets excess revenue from energy companies and returns it to consumers so we can get cheaper electricity in our homes and businesses. However, no country alone will be able to deal with this problem as effectively as it needs to be. Europe is late. We’ve lost too much time. Unlike the pandemic, when we acted much faster and more efficiently, like Europe, here, unfortunately, we were unable to respond to the urgent need to support European societies. Kyriakos Mitsotakis, as he has done to this day, will continue to insist on the need for a European solution in Prague and at the next summit.

There are movements, proposals and programs in the direction of energy conservation, which are absolutely reasonable in the environment in which we live. But they are not terrible, that is, nothing very significant changes in our life, in our daily life, if we save energy with simple things. Mostly at the state, wider state and municipal levels. We are not talking about mandatory moves from the point of view of households, businesses.”

As a government spokesman explained: “Electricity in households will not be turned off. We have taken great care to ensure the efficiency of the supply chain. DEPA Emporias has already entered into a very large supply agreement with the French TOTAL, so that we can even compensate for the final loss of supplies from the Russian gas pipeline. We have developed a number of other scenarios both to increase storage capacity at Revituss and to operate the lignite power plants that are currently running on natural gas. An extreme scenario with power rationing, massive power outages, or anything else is not currently in sight. As far as the state is concerned, there are already specific provisions, incentives and consequences, if not respected, for saving electricity.”

He also added that “the heat surcharge this year will be increased both in terms of amount and perimeter. All households have horizontal support in terms of electricity. Any new opportunity that exists is used to strengthen society. We face many difficulties when it comes to the economic life of the people. We perceive it, we see it. We are here in such a way as to be within budgetary constraints and the endurance of the economy, always close to society, so that the imported accuracy leaves as little “footprint” as possible on people’s lives.

Source: RES-IPE