Alternate Minister of National Defence Dimitris Vitsas, during an interview today Friday 10 March 2017, on the morning show ”Proti Grammi” , on SKAI TV and journalists Vassilis Lyritzis and Dimitris Ekonomou , stated the following :
On the Turkish provocativeness:
It is clear that for us, Greece, there are no “grey zones” in the Aegean. We know through international treaties which came to be ratified by struggles, what belongs to us. We are not claiming anything from anyone, and we cannot tolerate or accept any dispute of our own territories. I support the political, and legal point of view expressed by the President of the Hellenic Republic during the celebrations for the liberation of the Dodecanese. I believe that sticking to a rhetoric level and fabricated tension, does not benefit Turkey nor anyone in the region. The sooner our European allies and any other allies realize the problem, meaning the sooner they realize that the borders of Greece are the borders of Europe, the better for everyone. And they should make sure that the tension is curbed at political and diplomatic level.
On the NATO presence in the Aegean:
We and Turkey are both NATO members. The NATO mission in the Aegean concerning the management of refugee flows, was very beneficial, for the international image of Turkey, compared to Greece’s. This is proved by the fact Turkey has recently asked to end this mission and the NATO voting ruled 25 votes for and 1 against the proposal set by Greece. Anyone can believe anything said about the NATO role, I am talking about a real fact.
On the armaments enhancement:
There is an ongoing conversation we should be careful of. We have stated that what we want to do in relation to the Armed Forces it to upgrade our weapon systems. This does not however mean that we are on the armaments hunt. It means, firstly, maintenance of the available systems, secondly their upgrade and thirdly targeted purchases which work as capabilities multipliers. All this, of course, within the fiscal context imposed by our times. The digits are astronomical. Allow me to add that the Minister of Defence himself has not mentioned anything about the purchase of aircraft. What you want to do and what you can do are two totally different things. We are actually talking about the upgrade of our fighter aircraft fleet and we are expecting an answer on the cost and the pay-off to have been completed within ten years. This may amount from 800 million Euro to 1.5 billion, meaning an annual average of 80 million , something we can cope with. We need to be careful when it comes to disclosing information on our defence capabilities.
Commenting on a related report he stated:
It is a far-fetched reality that the “Turks are roaming the Aegean”. Any air violation is answered and whenever a Turkish vessel violates our water territories a Greek one stops it. I prefer fighting battles at diplomatic level, that said, however, we need to be armoured and ready. On one side the Turkish cannot take an initiative for their own internal reasons or reasons concerning their eastern borders and cause a heated incident, and, we, on the other side are taking our measures.
Is there a discrepancy of opinions with the Minister?
I would say that we have different styles, manners of expressions, in a sense we complement each other.
On the belief that our relations with Turkey are on the edge:
At times things get pretty tensed. We are answering this tension and so far so good. It is important to be decisive, cool and have temperance. We have all-case scenarios.
Our policy is different to the one followed in the past. The policy followed in the past that they are provoking us but we aren’t talking back, does not exist today. Knowingly we are clarifying that in the context of International what we want is peace. We are answering with temperance and determination.
On April 16 Turkey is holding a referendum, many things are explained through a referendum. Turkey has many problems in its southern and eastern borders and is extremely pressurized in its interior and as history dictates one manner to manage this tension is to export it.
On the possibility of a heated incident in Cyprus this summer:
I haven’t got such a piece of information. We are informed on many things and we have all-case scenarios, information on such issues is not releasable though.
