Around 21:00 on Tuesday, October 16, 2018, a light spring breeze blew on Herodos Attiku Dreams of Power Street, next to the National Garden, and gently stirred the curtains of the Presidential Palace through the half-open windows. The contrast with the turbulent political events was complete. Under Pavlopoulos, 9 p.m. was still considered “noon” at the Presidential Palace. The president often stayed in his office until midnight. Especially on that night of conflicts and humility…

Pavlopoulos ordered Dimitris Krikas, head of the presidential security service, to rush to the side entrance of the presidential palace on Vasileos Georgiou Street. The emergency order to the Messenian Lieutenant General was to ensure that the documents he had just announced would be sent to the President by Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias. There has never been anything like it in the annals of the presidency of the republic. Strengthening the presidency in front of documents from the Foreign Ministry? What were these documents? Why don’t they enter the Presidential Palace?

The beginning of the adventure is located a week earlier, on October 9, in Washington. Defense Minister Panos Kammenos was there. Kammenos, who could not stomach the Prespa Agreement, told U.S. Under Secretary of State for European Affairs Wes Mitchell that he believed the Agreement “would not be ratified by Macedonia” and that Greece could cooperate with countries in the region in an “alternative way.” “. A defense cooperation pact capable of preventing Russian penetration into the Balkans, not to mention the name Skopje.

Messages

Kotsias, who was the architect of the Prespa Accord, breathed a sigh of relief about Kammenos, who had already begun “tweaking” him with threatening messages sent to his mobile phone since July 2018. Messages from the summer of 2018 that today sound like they came out of Tonight, such as “I’m going to corrupt you in public” and “Get together because I’m going to kill you,” later saw the light of day and formed the basis of an indictment. to the Prosecutor’s Office of the Supreme Court, filed by Kotsias against Kammenos on February 18, 2019. activity in Washington came to Athens because of the seven hour time difference.

“Night” texts and Washington were not the only challenge. Kotzia’s side claims to have been informed that NATO Deputy Secretary General Rose Gertmeller recorded in her secret reports following her visits to Athens that Kammenos spread the belief over the summer that Greece was even in danger of a coup if the Prespa Agreement was accepted. “Are we going to let him become a Carnation who threatens a coup?” Kotsias is reported to have angrily told Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, drawing a parallel between Kammenos and the Minister of Defense of the Centrist Union government in the summer of 1965, who wanted to be fired by George Papandreou but insisted that King Constantine keep him in his post. In addition, Kammenos reportedly said in his confidential contacts with NATO officials (who certainly have a lot of patience) that the ideal solution for FYROM would be to divide it between Greece, Albania and Bulgaria. Somehow, Kammen Mitchell’s new offer was enough to win the State Department.

Kammenos returned to Greece and a week later, on Monday, October 15, at 3:10 p.m., appeared without a tie at the entrance to the Club of Officers of the Armed Forces (LAED) on Rigillis Street to greet the Prime Minister. Three minutes later, Tsipras arrived from Muruzi Street wearing jeans and a black quilted vest over a white shirt. A secret meal in the rotunda room on the raised ground floor of LAED, with old-fashioned mosaics overlooking the Lyceum Aristotle, included artichokes a la polita, baked sardines, snapper with potato salad, chicken roll with rice, and contosuvli with french fries. It is worth adding that the quality of the LAED restaurant is one of the best kept secrets of the Armed Forces.

The gastronomic delight facilitated the purpose of the meeting, which was for the two leaders to agree that, despite tensions, their cordial cooperation will continue until at least the spring of 2019, when the Prespa Agreement is put to a vote in Parliament. They clinked their glasses and scheduled a cabinet meeting for the next day, Tuesday. In the Maximos Palace, it was suggested that Kotsias, who participated in the EU Foreign Affairs Council, in Luxembourg, he is in no hurry to return to Athens. The plan was to let Kammenos speak and go crazy and then solemnly announce that there was no need to cut pensions as the 3.5% GDP surplus target could be met without new austerity. But Kotsias returned in time and entered the assembly determined to put Kammenos in his place.

At the meeting, Kammenos, rehabilitated by a previous dinner with Tsipras, confidently described his “heretical” approach to the issue of the Prespa agreement and the proposals he made to Washington, ignoring the foreign minister. Kotsias responded.

Kotsias: You are trying to conduct foreign policy at the expense of the government and the country in order to serve your political ambitions.

Burned: I stick to my opinion about the name Skopje.

Tsipras: Yes, but make it clear that you are not going to identify with the official opposition in a possible denunciation of the government.

Tourism Minister, ANEL MP and famous top model of the 90s Elena Kuntura jumped off “like a goddess of cars” to reassure the Prime Minister: “I support the government to complete its work.” The intervention of the Contour made Kammenos even more uncomfortable.

Kammenos reportedly said in his contacts with NATO officials that the ideal solution for FYROM would be to divide it between Greece, Albania and Bulgaria.

Kammenos (Tsiprasu): I’m not going to join the effort to overthrow the government, but I can’t be replaced by Kotzias and get the facts from third parties. (To Kotzias): You’re throwing secret funds wherever you want, and you also took 30 million from Soros to pay for Prespa.

It was cold in the Parliament’s office. This is an enclosed space that in any case creates a gloomy mood for those present due to poor lighting and furniture left over from the 60s.

Kotsias: How dare you; Shame! The Jackal knows where the secret funds go. Euclid, speak up. (Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos did not speak.)

Tsipras he raised his hands and, looking at the ceiling, said in an indignant tone, as if addressing God for the first time: “What do I get from these two!”.

Kotsias: From two? None of them. You get them from him (pointing to Kammenos). I’m over it!

At the time, Nikos Pappas, the minister of digital control, reportedly used his knowledge of “French” not to “decorate” the minister, but to expel the bad energy accumulated in the atmosphere. But to no avail…

As the ministerial session ends badly, Nikos Kotzias rushes to the Presidential Palace shortly after 7 pm. Prokopis Pavlopoulos has already been informed of developments. The meeting was attended by the then Secretary General of the Presidium, Ambassador George Jennimatas.

Kotsias: She went crazy in the ministry, and Tsipras didn’t cover for me. I want to inform you of my resignation.

Pavlopoulos: Brother Nikos, resign in the heat of the moment?

Kotsias: I can’t stay.

Pavlopoulos: In any case, this is a matter between you and Tsipras. I don’t have a reason.

Kotsias leaves, but, having arrived at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, decides to send Pavlopoulos the presidential decrees prepared by him to expand the territorial waters to 12 miles. The Presidential Palace is informed that confidential documents will be sent, but Prokopis Pavlopoulos immediately ordered not to accept them. The case with decrees comes, but Major General Krikas does not accept them and returns them to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The next day, Kotsias formalizes his resignation, and a day later, on October 18, Tsipras goes to the presidential palace to be sworn in as foreign minister, saying, “My dream has come true. I have a ministry.”

Because Pavlopoulos refused to accept them.

During the handover ceremony, Kotzias cited contested presidential decrees. This is the work that he personally did for a long time together with two of his associates. “The Foreign Office did not know what a trick was,” he said today. “Pebbles can be measured from the shoreline or from the outer baseline (i.e., a straight line connecting the two ends of the bay). You close the bays, count 12 miles from there and thus gain 2-3 miles. When you close the bays and determine the territorial waters, you publish an announcement in the UN. And if it is not disputed within a year, then it is valid. If disputed, negotiations begin. By decrees of the President, the country expanded its “hard” sovereignty from 6 to 12 miles. The first presidential decree concerned the extension to Antikythera. The second, from Antikythera to Crete. Five years later, nothing happened.”

According to Kotzias, the expansion of the territorial waters in Crete will bring Turkey to the negotiating table, where the continental shelf (bottom) and EEZ (water column to the surface) will gradually be discussed, effectively weakening the casus belli of 1995. also claims that the extension would have preceded the 2019 Turkish-Libyan memorandum. It would have no place to “spread”.

Tsipras recently told an EU representative. on the foreign policy of Josep Borel that Greece should extend its territorial waters to 12 miles south of Crete. He spoke again about 12 miles in Crete two years ago. The intra-party opposition SYRIZA (“Umbrella”) disagrees. “SYRIZA will fall into the trap of Mitsotakis, who will make 12 miles an election flag.” However, during his eight months as prime minister and foreign minister, Tsipras ignored Kotsias’ presidential decrees. He could make them happen. “Everyone is afraid to introduce them,” Kotsias tells his interlocutors today.

Why did Kotsias send them to Pavlopoulos a few hours after the stormy rally? Some suggest that he hoped that the prime minister could ask him to comply with them and not insist on his resignation. Others say that he sent them in order to later claim that he was not responsible for their failure to comply. And why didn’t Pavlopoulos get them? Because Tsipras, who was informed of their mission by Kotsias, asked him, Kotsias’ friends say, which Pavlopoulos vehemently denies. “Tsipras never called me about this.

According to Pavlopoulos, the Presidium did not receive the decrees because the minister was resigning and because they were normative decrees, the processing of which belongs to the State Council on the basis of article 95, paragraph 1, subsection d of the Constitution. Today, the relationship between Pavlopoulos and Kotsias is “frozen”. The former president of the republic, after decrees, decided to stop receiving the poem that Nikos Kotzias sends by SMS every first day of the month in order to select the addressees…