The Alternate Minister of National Defence Fotis Kouvelis in the context of an interview on Tuesday, 8 May 2018, on the 1st Programme of the Radio Station of the HRT to the journalists Thanos Siafakas and Giorgos Neroutsos, mentioned among other things the following:

On the question of whether or not the Turkish provocativeness is going to end after the elections in Turkey:

The tensions created by Erdogan are not going to be only of a pre-election nature, integrated, in other words, in his electoral campaign. Erdogan creates everything which is recorded, that is the whole escalation, be it of a rhetoric nature, in order to ensure his presence at the so-called field of issues, which in his opinion will give him the opportunity to negotiate, in particular to be able to be present at the crucial point, that of the Cyprus Exclusive Economic Zone. He is going to continue all these actions, the level of tension will vary probably, since, on the other hand, he has to decide on the level of his external policy.

He is now obliged to clearly define – and in particular after the elections – his allied framework. At present, he makes movements among NATO, USA and Russia. On the other hand, he has to face Europe that is against him, remembering it almost a month ago. He has “forgotten” the European orientation of Turkey. All these make his external policy vulnerable and fragile. As a consequence, in accordance with the course of actions, he will be obliged to form, de facto, an external policy based on alliances.

Let us not forget that the problem of the establishment of a Kurdish state still remains, an issue that intensely worries Erdogan as well as the majority of the politicians of Turkey. There are indications from the side of the USA showing Erdogan that he has to decide what he is going to do. For instance, his option to buy the S-400 from Russia, has immediately shaped counterbalancing political options in the USA, being threatened this way that he is not going to acquire the F-35 aircrafts, in case he proceeds to the implementation of this agreement. There is the stage of the transitional developments between the threat and its implementation. The fact, though, that Erdogan is under pressure from the USA, in respect of the relations he seeks to have with Russia and mainly at an extremely critical point, as the one of the armaments, is a significant issue.

On the Proportional Representation System, the possibility of elections and the splitting of the B’ Region of Athens:

The splitting of the B’ Region of Athens is something that should have been done a long time ago. Unfortunately, willfulness, self-interests I would say, did not allow for this to happen. Splitting leads to the debilitation of interrelations, of influence and usually of not legal ones. As far as the Proportional Representation System is concerned: the Proportional Representation System has a value of its own. If the Proportional Representation System did not exist we should invent it, establish it, implement it, not for any other reason but because this enables the original expression of the real social and political correlations, it serves the equality of ballot and it certainly leads to a necessary and useful synthesis.

On political initiatives:

Two poles are formed in our country. On the one hand, the deeply conservative pole and on the other hand, the progressive pole. I do not speak about a bi-partisanship, but about the existence of two poles. This phenomenon is not recorded only in Greece, but in Europe as a whole. Therefore, all these forces related to the Left Wing, the Center-left wing, the Center, the social-democracy have to cut off any element connecting them with the neo-liberal policy and contribute to the necessary convergences. The next day our country ends with the memoranda, having all the elements it might have at the level of political independence of the government, it should lead to progressive convergences, as an extremely important field opens, that requires the convergence of the wider progressive and left forces.

On the stance of Fofi Gennimata, President of the “Movement for Change”:

A few days ago, Mrs. Gennimata, expressing the “Movement for Change” this allied party that has been established, spoke of the need to promote a Constitutional Reform. It is inconsistent to ask for elections today, since the Parliament should be open to start the Constitutional Reform.  

The Government considers that what is the most useful, the most necessary and advantageous to the country is to run its constitutional four-year term to the end and this is what it opts to do. Let me ask you a question: is it possible to proceed to elections, to be in a pre-election period without an established government, in the pre-election period framework, to speak about the recapitalisation and the reassessment of the public debt through curtailment or probably extension of the time periods for payment of the installments? Obviously not. The request, the proposal for the conduct of early elections does not indicate the significance of these issues, subjugating, on the contrary, these issues to the willfulness of their oppositional tactics, this of course being a burden for the people and the country.  

On whether or not there is a question of reassessing the pensions and the tax-exemptions:

At present, what the government pursues, what it aims at, is to conclude the evaluation procedures, to end the memoranda period, to obtain the maximum possible part of its autonomy to make the necessary management. So, everything has to be done at the right time.