The Alternate Minister of National Defence Dimitris Vitsas gave an interview to journalist Takis Chatzis on SKAI radio on Thursday, October 20, 2016, in which he stated, among other things:
About Turkey’s violations:
Greece does not pretend to anything. Greece knows its sovereignty rights and it will not allow them to be under any negotiation by any means. We face the issue of the violations with composure and determination and we raise it before the international organizations and the alliances in which we participate. I would ask that country to realize that we understand that it is in a somehow difficult position, yet problems will not be solved by moving them out of the borders and particularly towards the area of the Aegean Sea. We call on the Europeans, partners and allies, to realise that the frontier of Greece is also the frontier of Europe. In this sense, they should contribute to our effort to achieve stability in the area. At a diplomatic and political level. European Union has no army, what exists now is a proposal by the Italian Defence Minister who raises a point on how this may be solved in a non-paper. The issue is being discussed and will be discussed for long. The Armed Forces secure our country’s borders as a force of deterrence. This is a fact.
About the refugees’ issue:
A man, who arrives in Greece, whether he is a refugee or a migrant, will have to apply for asylum. If he does not, he must return to Turkey according to the agreement between European Union and Turkey. The big problem which regards the refugees and migrants’ issue now, is on the islands, whereas in the Greek mainland the situation is improved. The main problem is the relatively slow evaluation of the Committees for the Refugees, which is the second level consideration of the asylum applications. This is due to the fact that there are a small number of personnel in comparison to the demand, that is there are not many specialists on the evaluation of the applications, because the assistance that had been promised by the European Union has not arrived yet, for the procedures of the return to Turkey and the relocation to other EU countries to begin. This creates a tense situation. Every Committee for Refugees evaluates one or two applications per day at a second level. In Germany too, an average of 1-2 applications is evaluated per day. This is a mainly judicial procedure based on the Geneva Convention and the international law which cannot be violated. The main issue is that more Committees should have beeen created, but the assistance that has been promised by the EU has not arrived yet; only 6% of it has been implemented, so, out of the 400 special employees, only 26 have arrived. We, of course, we are doing our best, by strengthening the existent structures for the evaluation of the applications. At this moment, we have vacant places of accommodation in the Greek mainland; in parallel, the programmes of the UNHCR and of other organizations are being conducted for the accommodation in houses. From our side, we are ready to begin the relocation to other European countries, but there are EU countries which declared that they will not offer any accommodation despite the fact that a relevant decision has been made by the European Union.
