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Thursday, August 29, 2013

Greece: To be or not to be — involved in Syria?

Now that preparations for military strikes against Syria are underway, Greece is wondering what attitude to adopt. A strategic member of NATO in the Mediteranean region – it even houses two NATO bases – "Greece must think of its future now that it is under German dominance," says an opinion piece in Greek daily To Vima :

Greece "belongs" to the West [the United States] – not to Germany which is frenetically trying to take over the control of the country through the debt crisis. If we want to return to the former Greece, it is time to be useful to these allies whose interests are best served when we are not on our knees but when we remain standing.

However, notes To Vima in an editorial published on its web site, notwithstanding its domestic crisis, Greece still wants to exert a stabilising influence in the aftermath of the revolutions of the Arab Spring. With this in mind, perhaps it should avoid involvement in "this kind of regional upheaval"—

Facing an uncertain future, we must protect our status as a factor of stability in the region. We have paid a high enough price for our own crisis. We cannot take the risk of being part of the crisis that is developing in the region. We must ensure that we can manage the internal contradictions inherent to our problems so that we do not find ourselves caught up in instability and destabilisation.


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.presseurop.eu