The Minister of National Defence Mr. Panos Panagiotopoulos met at Brussels with the Turkish Minister of Defence Mr. Ismet Yilmaz, on the sidelines of the NATO Defence Ministers Meetings’ works.
After their meeting, Mr. Panagiotopoulos made the following statement:
“On the sidelines of the NATO Defence Ministers Meetings’ works taking place here in Brussels, I had the chance to meet with my counterpart, the Minister of Defence of Turkey, Mr. Ismet Yilmaz.
It was not a courtesy meeting, since we had the chance to discuss for fifty five minutes all matters of my pertinence, referring to the relations between Greece and Turkey.
One of the issues I had the chance to bring up to Mr. Yilmaz was that the infringements and violations by Turkish combat aircraft within the airspace of the Aegean, as well as the entry of Turkish battle ships from time to time in our country’s territorial waters, are actions that do not help the promotion of good relations between Greece and Turkey. They are actions that trigger off an undue tension and do not help the two peoples to have a sincere relation of good neighbourhood, cooperation and peaceful coexistence.
Besides that, we also expanded on other issues. I pointed out to my Turkish counterpart that as far as the Cypriot issue is concerned, a solution between Greek-Cypriots and Turk-Cypriots could be found, from the moment Turkey would decide to withdraw the Turkish occupation army, kept on the island since 1974 until nowadays.
In any case, we agreed that we must discuss sincerely and openly, expressing our points of disaccord or accord. For this reason we have decided to establish a direct telephone line, a red line as we call it, between the two ministries, so as to be able to discuss directly, to resolve the misunderstandings where they lie or emerge, to make the difficult easier and to not leave space for situations that might lead the two peoples to misfortunes.
I clarified that it is a decision of the Government of Samaras to have good relations, peaceful coexistence and cooperation, on the presumption that all our neighbours, and before all our neighbouring Turkey, will respect Greece’s national sovereign rights in all fields”.
