NIKOS EVANGELATOS: I will ask you directly about what we heard from A. Rombopoulos, what does it mean 1,000 commandos to be on our frontier with Turkey?

ALKIVIADIS STEFANIS: Over the last days, we have been watching a strategy of information operations on the side of Turkey which announces various things and then we see them announcing that these are not true!

Let me remind you some of the fake news:

• Migrants started from Idlib and they have reached our borders. We found out that those who came have nothing to do with Syria, since they appeared on our borders only few hours after the incident in Syria.

• They said that 135 thousand have entered our borders and we found out that these figures are not real.

• They mentioned dead and shots. All these have been finally proved not to be true.

Now we see one thousand Special Forces Police Officers. We are watching what is going on, we see it, we are planning how to face it when the time comes.

Much long before all this happens, the government had done its planning. When analyzing the tactical situation, which we do continuously, at a strategic, operational and tactical level, we had seen that coming.

We had seen it since last November. We had taken the necessary action since 16 December, when we started building a different procedure to face the situation in Evros.

And when this occurred we were ready. And this was proved by the results with the 24 thousand deterrence operations. Few of them managed to cross the border and who did it was treated as a common criminal with the respective severe punishments.

NIKOS EVANGELATOS: The question is how far will Erdogan go, because what we all see is that, indeed, the Greek side managed to perform its plan this week (because a whole week has passed since last Friday when this began).

Indeed, few managed to cross it, I see that the islands too have been armoured with the many ships that sail north and south on the Aegean Sea. Erdogan seems to de-escalate continuously, at least in words, but I do not know whether he will keep this plan. It seems that these one thousand men he is sending will only try to cause tensions, just because the migrants are not allowed in. Are you afraid of that?

ALKIVIADIS STEFANIS: I would like to start by saying that “we are not afraid”. We know what we are doing, we have been trained for that and we deal with it properly. We assess and analyse this situation and we do our planning. At this moment, we do not want to deal with Erdogan’s intentions.

Mr. Erdogan may have any intention he likes. We are assessing what his capabilities are, and based on these capabilities, we are planning our own reaction. We are waiting that he will escalate the situation. We are ready for that and we are continuously reinforced at many levels.

We are covering the legal aspect of this matter. You saw the change that was made. You saw the decision of the Governmental National Security Council which was a very decisive decision, by which the Prime Minister gave us the possibility to do our job released from the burden of other matters we had to think about.

Since November up to now, 32 million euros have been released by European and by some national funds, which are aimed to both reinforce the Defence with materiel and assets for the Hellenic Police, the Coast Guard and the Armed Forces, as well as to contribute to dealing with the Migration issue”

NIKOS EVANGELATOS: During the last days, you visited many remote islands and, since worries are expressed that if Erdogan’s action does not succeed in Evros region, which seems to have been sealed off up to a certain point, we will see flows coming through the islands, do you consider this probability and what do you do about it?

ALKIVIADIS STEFANIS: Yes we do and we have been prepared for it. At this moment, about sixty eight vessels are on the islands. These are vessels of the Coast Guard, which are continuously reinforced, and of the Hellenic Navy, and Special Forces boats participate too. In parallel, of course, “Frontex” forces, as well as NATO forces are also available.

The vessels follow a particular operational planning. We have also reinforced them with new instruments which give us the possibility to perform better surveillance and, of course, with helicopters and drones. But the most important which I would like to say is the following: Our personnel’s attitude has changed and we now have a more aggressive surveillance and we show everybody that we do not allow anyone to cross our borders, we perform deterrence as we do in Evros region.

There are vessels which approach and turn back when they see our stance. Many times they come accompanied by the Turkish Coast Guard which is always there watching. We show it them with our stance. And it is a surprise for the Turks. The Turks have been surprised by this different reaction of ours in Evros and on the islands. They were not used to us having this stance.

NIKOS EVANGELATOS: This is serious. What I mean is that Mr. Stefanis speaks for the Ministry of National Defence of Greece. Obviously, these words – because we all know they reach the other side and they are listening – have a particular value and importance.

I would like to ask you about this infamous incident of the shot because Erdogan during the last two days tries to spread it as wider as possible. Has something like that happened there?

ALKIVIADIS STEFANIS: About us having shot an immigrant? There’s not even a chance in a million! We are not racists. We are not xenophobic.

We are Greeks and we love our country and the Defence we are implementing is a Constitutional Right and none can deprive us of it. But we exercise it based on a grid which Mr. Gerapetritis has very correctly constructed and which covers every legal aspect.

NIKOS EVANGELATOS: Sometimes, things in Evros region may go beyond limits. That is, we see Turks, for instance, throwing tear gas to the Greek side. This is a sort of fire from the Turkish side to the Greek one. What do we do about this?

ALKIVIADIS STEFANIS: An escalation of this crisis can easily happen. We do not want this. We have awareness, composure and decisiveness. By making steady steps, we show that we are not the ones who become provocative and this is obvious.

This is obvious because of the Turkish tear gas which is on the Greek territory, regardless of whether they accused us of throwing it. It becomes obvious from our stance. We are there, with a stable position, without causing any escalations.

NIKOS EVANGELATOS: Do you think that we may have some form of provocativeness somewhere in Evros, in the Aegean or anywhere else?

ALKIVIADIS STEFANIS: I cannot make such an assumption. We analyse this matter and we make our planning accordingly. I would like to stress something you mentioned at a certain moment.

Note a word because it is very important: Morale. Morale is the force multiplier of the personnel and you said that they are singing the National Anthem there and they honour our homeland. This is very important.