The Alternate Minister of National Defence Dimitris Vitsas in an interview that he gave on Tuesday, 21 March, 2017, on ERT radio to journalist Evangelia Baltatzi stated, among other things:
Regarding the cancelation of NATO exercise because of Lemnos Island:
There is an attitude – which is not new – of NATO to try to play a neutral role among the allies that participate in it. In this sense, although there is an exercise which was conducted last year too and includes also Lemnos Island, surprisingly Lemnos Island was not included this year. This was the cause for us; it was an important issue that Lemnos was not included in this exercise. So, after having proceeded with all the diplomatic action which did not bring any result, we said that we will withdraw from the exercise and so we did. Practically, this probably means nothing, but at a symbolic level it means that we do not tolerate in any case, even in the least, our voice and our rights over the Aegean to be disputed.
About the question whether we are concerned:
The total surrounding area in our region and in the Middle East causes feelings of concern, yet when one has feelings of concern or problems that make them worry, they take measures. The measures we took are to make our diplomatic presence clear as government, as Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and to have our country protected as far as the readiness and vigilance of the Armed Forces are concerned, so that a level of security to this direction is formed and we will keep it. We also take all the measures to reduce or even eliminate any probability of accident. Because rhetoric leads to actions whose result sometimes can be controlled and at some moments it can become uncontrollable.
Act or omissions of the neighbouring country isolate it, despite the fact that they may consider that they gain credits in relation to their internal procedures and I am referring to the referendum. They rather isolate it, in particular if an intense rhetoric is used exactly in order to achieve good results in the election. The opinion expressed by the EU that this rhetoric combined with these actions and the possibility of death penalty becoming a law in Turkey will definitely block any EU accession procedure, is a very serious issue. So, in a sense we should adopt a stance that reinforces our positions. We definitely do not claim anything from anyone, yet we cannot even think that someone may dispute our sovereignty rights. In parallel, as a pillar of stability, we contribute to peace making and stability in the area.
