How the world sees Greece
Editor’s note: This is food writer Devin Healey’s first column for TAPinto New Brunswick. NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ — It turns out you don’t need to cross the Atlantic to get great Mediterranean food. Two weeks ago, I was invited to a night of hospitality ...
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The government’s strategic target was for Greece to be able to borrow directly from the markets after the current programme ends in August 2018, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said on Wednesday. Regarding Greece’s debt, the prime minister said the government was striving for better solutions than that presented by Germany’s finance minister at the last […]
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This is a man who has just turned 90 years old and has a serious passion for GREEK plays: in our conversation I learn more about the man himself and ...
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A formal ceremony to hand over the remains of 17 fallen GREEK soldiers from 1974 will take place on Friday in Nicosia. According to an announcement ...
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Gilts edged higher as investors waited on the release of the minutes of the US central bank's last policy meeting amid dovish remarks from top ...
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For those of you looking forward to the latest offerings in GREEK-produced or directed independent cinema around the world, the Los Angeles GREEK ...
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Investing.com – GREECE stocks were lower after the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Banking, Media and Travel sectors led shares lower.
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ATHENS (Alliance News) - GREECE posted a primary surplus of EUR1.7 billion euros in the first quarter, beating the target set by its group of ...
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You can take a dip into the clear blue waters surrounding Zakynthos Island in GREECE where you'll find the famous Blue Caves. The arches formed ...
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Ulysses’s reputation preceded him. ‘O unhappy citizens, what madness? Do you think the enemy’s sailed away? Or do you think any Greek gift’s free of treachery? Is that Ulysses’s reputation? Either there are Greeks in hiding, concealed by the wood, or it’s been built as a machine to use against our walls, or
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Prolific and celebrated electronic music pioneer Jean-Michel Jarre kicked off the North American leg of his ‘Electronica’ World Tour in Toronto May 9 to rave reviews, with Liisa Ladourceur from Now Toronto stating, “Jean-Michel Jarre’s first ...
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Investors are bailing on the Global X MSCI Greece exchange-traded fund (GREK), down 3.3% Wednesday, following another dead-end Eurozone finance minister meeting that ended without the release of bailout money. Between July 3 and July 20, Athens must cough ...
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A small drop of Paradise on the Aegean Sea
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Things are looking grim in Turkey
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Greece will not need any debt relief from euro zone governments if it keeps its primary surplus above 3 percent of GDP for 20 years, […] The post No Greek Debt Relief Needed if Primary Surplus Above 3%/GDP for 20 Years: Reuters Cites ESM appeared first on The National Herald.
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The Lord’s ways are known to be mysterious. But creditors’ ways are beyond any limit innovative. Especially when it comes to block any loan or any promised debt relief to indebted Greece. Despite the many projections and forecasts and prior actions, in the back of creditors’ head, which is Wolfgang Schaeuble is the thought: I … The post ESM: No debt relief if Greece achieves primary surplus of 3+% for 20 years appeared first on Keep Talking Greece.
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Greek police say they have arrested two Albanian men in a border region for allegedly illegally harvesting herbs growing wild on the mountainside. A police statement Tuesday said the men aged 20 and 22 had gathered 16 kilos of ironwort, (Sideritis or mountain tea), a herb used for a traditional tea. They were also charged … The post Greek Police arrests two men for illegal harvesting of herbs on the mountains appeared first on Keep Talking Greece.
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Perhaps no food has enjoyed a greater boom in popularity during the last half decade than Greek yogurt. Once a rarity inside U.S. supermarkets, Greek yogurt now makes up roughly half of all yogurt sales nationwide. One reason for the rapid rise in demand ...
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* NBG Q1 profit 5 mln euros, down from 73 mln in Q4 * Piraeus Q1 loss falls to 6 mln euros from 12 mln in Q4 (Adds NBG, Piraeus CEOs comment, background, details) ATHENS, May 24 (Reuters) - Uncertainty over Greece's bailout review took its toll on Piraeus ...
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This most American of weekends gets a Mediterranean flavor at the Ya’ssoo Greek Festival, with folk dancing, cooking demonstrations, music and (of course) food Friday through Sunday, May 26-28, at St. George Greek Orthodox Church, 43816 Woodward Ave.
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ATHENS May 24 Greece's second largest lender …
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Her articles in “Condé Nast Traveler” are hymns for Greece
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ATHENS May 24 Piraeus Bank was in the red for a second straight quarter in January-to-March with lower provisions for impaired loans helping to narrow its loss, Greece's largest lender by assets said on Wednesday. Piraeus, which is 26.2 percent owned by ...
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A series of events including thematic units on the schools of the Polytechnic and the long history of the institution have been scheduled to take place in ...
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The Ya'ssoo GREEK Festival features GREEK cuisine, customs and entertainment. Photo courtesy of St. George GREEK Orthodox Church.
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ATHENS (ANA) – The aim is to make Greece an international energy and transit hub, as a crossroads of three continents, but also a node […] The post PM Tsipras: The Aim is to Make Greece an International Energy Hub appeared first on The National Herald.
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PIRAEUS, Greece (ANA)- The municipality of Piraeus in cooperation with city agencies and associations organises for third consecutive year the ‘SEA DAYS 2017’, a festival […] The post Sea Days 2017, a Panorama of Events in the City of Piraeus appeared first on The National Herald.
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BOSTON, MA –The Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees of Hellenic College and Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology (HCHC) has established a […] The post Four-Member Committee to Decide Fate of Metropulos’ HCHC Presidency appeared first on The National Herald.
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ATHENS (ANA) – Greece plans to expand a Greek Golden Visa program, offering residence permits to foreigners buying houses or property worth more than 250,000 […] The post Greece to Expand Golden Visa Program Offering Buying Permits for €250,000 Property appeared first on The National Herald.
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So far, 2017 has been a good year for NATO. Donald Trump, who infamously wrote off the alliance as “obsolete” during his election campaign, reversed gear in April, praising it as a “bulwark of international peace and security”. The new French president, Emmanuel Macron, has promised that France will “honour its commitment to alliances”. And the British prime minister, Theresa May, looks set to win a general election on June 8. This will not only keep NATO doubter Jeremy Corbyn out of Downing Street, but will enable her government to make an unabashed bid for leadership of European defence post-Brexit. That will position NATO as Europe’s principal provider of military security, something that can only benefit the alliance as it continues to hold a firm line against Moscow. When Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, the NATO allies responded with military support for the Baltic States and Poland, Romania and Bulgaria. The US has been an active participant – and the European Reassurance Initiative launched by the Obama administration has so far continued under Trump. NATO is also advancing its “southern strategy” in the Middle East, deploying aircraft in Turkish airspace to support the anti-IS coalition and running training programmes for the Iraqi armed forces. In February, NATO defence ministers agreed to create a new “Hub for the South” as a “response to threats stemming from the Middle East and North Africa”. So, is everything now smooth sailing for the alliance? Far from it. For one thing, it’s not clear whether Trump’s conversion to NATO will last. His scheduled appearance at the NATO leaders’ meeting on May 25 became a source of high anxiety before it even happened; to keep expectations low, the meeting wasn’t even billed as a formal summit. At the US’s insistence, the working agenda was confined to just two issues: counter-terrorism (including Afghanistan) and burden-sharing. Neither of these are exactly virgin territory. NATO has been involved in the former for many years. It deployed air patrols to the US immediately after 9/11, and tasked with “countering terrorism at sea”, it has mounted continuous maritime missions in the Mediterranean since 2001. NATO officials (aided by European foreign ministries) have done a good job in recent weeks of spinning these activities as a coherent package – but even if Trump is persuaded for now, the agenda might still unravel. COALITION OF THE UNWILLING France, Germany and Italy are unhappy at US proposals to give NATO a greater role in the anti-IS coalition, and there’s little interest outside Washington for expanding NATO’s role in Afghanistan. The military “surge” there currently being considered by the Trump administration seems no more likely to deliver victory against the Taliban than the efforts of George W Bush and Barack Obama. If (or when) things fall short or go wrong again, Trump may well blame the NATO allies for their unwillingness to join the fight. The US is also unlikely to drop its beef with the problems of burden-sharing. The secretary general reported in March that while 16 NATO allies had seen real increases in overall defence spending in 2016, only five – the US, Estonia, Greece, the UK and Poland – were meeting NATO’s defence spending target of 2% of GDP. Turkey, Romania, Latvia and Lithuania are expected to hit that target in 2018 or 2019, but Germany, Italy and Canada – three of NATO’s biggest hitters – have shown little enthusiasm to do the same. France, Macron has suggested, will not meet the mark until 2025 at the earliest. The Trump administration has promoted the idea of national plans committing the allies to interim targets, but these are just as likely to highlight the problem of underspend as solve it. Worst of all, lurking behind all of this are two issues the latest summit’s agenda does not address. First, major problems are brewing in the western Balkans: incipient violence in Kosovo, Macedonia and Montenegro could soon drag NATO back into the serious business of Balkan conflict management. Second, and rather less hypothetically, NATO has a major problem in the shape of an increasingly authoritarian Turkey. For all its lofty democratic language, NATO has long been soft on its members’ political shortcomings, and Trump is not the right American president to make an issue of democratic compliance. What matters more is the alliance’s effectiveness and its members’ solidarity. President Erdoğan’s purge of the Turkish military after the failed coup of July 2016 degraded the work of NATO Allied Command Operations, in which many senior Turks served. Turkey’s emerging understanding with Russia and Iran over Syria, meanwhile, puts it at odds with the US and its NATO allies, and so complicates NATO’s southern strategy. NATO may well ride out Trump’s visit to Brussels without public controversy – but behind the scenes, the problems continue to mount. [The Conversation] _Mark Webber does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond the academic appointment above._
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Now that you’ve read up on Cancer Treatment Centers of America’s tips for healthy grilling, apply what you’ve learned as you make these tasty lamb burgers. You’ll want to keep coming back to this recipe all summer long. 1. Mix lamb, spices and ...
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Alternate Foreign Minister G. Katrougalos today met with the Vice President of the European People's Party, Portuguese MEP Paulo Rangel. During the meeting there was an exchange of views on cooperation of national parliaments with the European institutions and on the functioning of national parliaments. In statements he made following the meeting, Mr. Katrougalos said it is important for Democracy and the survival of the European Union that citizens feel that their opinions matter, not only regarding political decisions that are taken, but also concerning the general course of the economy. These issues, he noted, will be discussed in the European Parliament's Constitutional Affairs Committee, with Mr. Rangel as rapporteur, contributing significantly, in his assessment, to the improvement of the quality of Democracy in Europe. Mr. Rangel stated that the issues raised by Greece concern a more democratic dimension on European Union issues, through the democratic control carried out in the Hellenic Parliament and on the level of the Union. The Portuguese MEP also referred to Greece's proposal that the president of the Eurogroup concurrently serve as a vice president of the European Commission. Which would mean, as he clarified, that a given Eurogroup president would be answerable to the European Parliament and the national parliaments, as he/she would have greater democratic legitimacy. Mr. Rangel is carrying out a visit to Athens as part of a delegation from the European Parliament's Constitutional Affairs Committee that is tasked with strengthening parliamentary control, including through national governments.
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Deputy Foreign Minister Terens Quick met with the Israeli Ambassador to Athens, Irit Ben-Abba, today, Wednesday, 24 May. The meeting focused on preparations for the upcoming Greece-Cyprus-Israel trilateral meeting on Diaspora issues, which is being held next month in Thessaloniki, and at which Deputy Foreign Minister Quick, the Cypriot Presidential Commissioner for Humanitarian Issues and Overseas Cypriots, Fotis Fotiou, and the Chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel, Natan Sharansky, will be representing their respective sides.
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U.S. ExxonMobil, France’s Total and Hellenic Petroleum will sign contracts for the exploitation of hydrocarbon on two land and one marine plot on Thursday. Announcing the upcoming signature during a press conference at the Ministry of Energy and Environment, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said that this is “a significant development” that will turn Greece into … The post ExxonMobil, Total, Hellenic Petroleum to sign hydrocarbon exploitation contracts contracts appeared first on Keep Talking Greece.
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Greece’s National Meteorology Service EMY issued a new weather warning on Wednesday. The warning is issued for Wednesday, Tuesday and Friday, May 24-26 2017. It forecast rainstorms, hail falls and strong winds up to 7 Beaufort locally. However, temperatures remain high according to seasonal levels. A rainstorm hit the area of Orchomenos in Boiotia, south … The post Greece Weather forecast with rainstorms, hail and strong winds appeared first on Keep Talking Greece.
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On 23 May, Amnesty International was informed by the Greek Ministry for Migration Policy that a registration process has begun in the Elliniko refugee ...
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BERLIN Greece will not need any debt relief from euro zone governments if it keeps its primary surplus above 3 percent of GDP for 20 years, a confidential paper prepared by the euro zone bailout fund, the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), showed.
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Two more Greek locations down with two more to go before our departure back to the states. We have been filled with Greek mythology the last two days, so I am hoping the next two stops will be more relaxing. The last two stops were Katakalon and Itea, each ...
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Nearly 9,000 hosted on islands at the moment
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ATHENS – Canal Dive Greek craft beer tried to start up in 2012, as the country’s economic crisis was worsening, but it took two years […] The post Donkey Milk Olive Oil Soap, Canal Dive Greek Beer: Greek Businesses Making Mark appeared first on The National Herald.
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The leading Chinese online travel portal alitrip.com, a subsidiary of the giant Alibaba Group, will present its business to an event in Athens organized by the Professional Chamber of Athens and the Athens Chamber of Commerce and Industry on May 26 at King George hotel. During the event titled Alitrip in Greece: Strengthening incoming tourism […]
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Greece’s Independent Public Revenue Authority (AADE) has announced it is reinforcing tax inspector staff in tourist areas for the summer season to step up checks. The aim of the operation is to have merchants and service providers issue receipts for sales of goods and services and comply with tax laws. The tax inspectors will also […]
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MILAN, May 24 Big money managers have started buying cheap Greek stocks from banks to lotteries as clouds over talks between Athens and its international creditors gradually clear, anticipating big returns. A deal in May when Greece agreed to more ...
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Not one day passes without an extra charge, a one more charge that empties the Greek pockets and pushes thousands into poverty. Whether unemployed, low-pensioner, vulnerable group of the society, whether employee or entrepreneur, the nightmare of additional financial burden does not stop. Out of the blue, here comes an extra levy, this time on … The post Extra Levy on Water for Greece households and farmers for the sake of water companies privatization appeared first on Keep Talking Greece.
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The Eurogroup meeting on Monday was another disgrace for the 18 eurozone finance ministers. According to reports by Brussels correspondents, German finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble spent hours of discussing with Poul Thomsen, the Europe representative of the International Monetary Fund, on the Greek issue. Behind closed doors. The rest of the 19 eurozone ministers had … The post Calls for transparency and accountability in the discussion forum called ‘Eurogroup’ appeared first on Keep Talking Greece.
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N. KOTZIAS: The 2nd Conference for Security and Stability in the Eastern Mediterranean was held successfully in Rhodes. Last year, 11 states and delegations participated, and this year we had 20 delegations: 10 states from the Arab world, the Arab League and the Gulf Cooperation Council – two international organizations of the Arab world – as well as Indonesia, as an observer. We also had 7 EU member states and European states participating. The Rhodes conference is one of the initiatives we have promoted, as the Foreign Ministry, and it is one of the 14 new international institutional actions we have put together. It is one of the three initiatives that go beyond the EU space and the existing trilateral cooperation schemes. We recently held a meeting of the Ancient Civilizations Forum, in Athens, with 9 participating states: From China to Bolivia and Peru. At the meeting we held here, we had bilateral meetings with a number of states – particularly with Egypt and Bulgaria – and we decided together with Bulgaria to move ahead with two new trilateral cooperation schemes: One includes Greece, Bulgaria and Armenia, and the other is comprised of Greece, Bulgaria and Georgia. We also agreed to promote an idea I have had for some time now for the cooperation of the four Balkan EU member states with the four Visegrad countries. That is, we will have regular meetings on the future of Europe between the Visegrad countries and the Balkan EU member states. Of course, the main subject of our Conference was security and stability in the Eastern Mediterranean. We don't mean security solely or mainly in its hard sense. We mean security in all its forms, which include maritime security, environmental security, transport security and the creation of new cooperation networks. In general, the content of the Rhodes initiative, like that of the other initiatives we have taken in international politics, is a positive agenda. That is, how we can develop cooperation and networks among these 20 states and organizations taking part. We agreed that the 3rd Rhodes Conference, which will take place at the end of June 2018, will focus on a discussion of the creation of a security framework and structure in the Eastern Mediterranean, along the lines of the CSCE and the OSCE that we have in Europe. So that we can capitalise on our experience and promote this cooperation. At this Conference, we are very interested in issues of what are called 'soft power' and 'soft security', smart security and smart power. We included two things: one is the preparation of the OSCE of the Eastern Mediterranean, and the second is the promotion of specific collaborations. Regarding the specific collaborations, we have taken a number of decisions, which are:First, to create a team of experienced diplomats that will guide our work in the intervening time, until summer 2018. Second, to set up a working group of young diplomats that will move ahead with the various plans we have decided to implement. These plans include cooperation between universities and research centres of the member states participating in this initiative. There is cooperation in the economic sector, particularly on tourism and transport, but also support of SMEs. We may also choose new technologies and the pharmaceutical industry. There is cultural cooperation, a field in which we support Egypt's initiative for the hosting of a Mediterranean film festival, headed by a committee drawn from the states that will be participating in this initiative. We have also agreed to cooperate on the issue of migration and to hold a forum in Lebanon on the subject of migration and refugees. Cyprus has undertaken to organize a meeting on blue economy; that is, maritime economy, and a meeting of young people. At the same time, there are a number of other initiatives. Our spirit – and I think this is the main thing I want to be understood – is that this institutional entity we are forming is not just another meeting between Arab and European countries. It is not a meeting between the European Union and the Arab League. It is a single grouping of Arab and European states. And this grouping is based on the large traditional space of Southeast Europe, North Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean, where there have been cultural and economic contacts for 4,500 years now. Contacts that – if they were possible in those times, when there were major transport, cultural and economic problems in comparison with today – it is imperative we develop today, shaping these new structures, these new transport, cultural and economic networks, and networks for combating terrorism. Given that we are endeavouring to stabilise the Eastern Mediterranean region, on the security issue we would like, in the future, to expand to the south and east. We took a serious step. We formed another international organization, on Greece's initiative, and we are meeting with a greater response than ever before. This response shows that our country's standing and the recognition of its role is greater than ever before. Thank you very much. FOREIGN MINISTRY SPOKESPERSON: We will give the floor to the local media, who have embraced this initiative from the outset. JOURNALIST: (off microphone) N. KOTZIAS: Rhodes has a tradition of linking the European and Arab spaces. I remind you that the wonderful building still stands where, in 1948, the negotiations were held on the formation of a state of Israel and Palestine. Rhodes is also a space and a point on the horizon where the most diverse cultures met; cultures that coexist in the composition of this Conference. Geographically, Rhodes is a star linking all of these regions and states. I hope that next year and in the future there will be more extensive air links between Rhodes and the participating states, so that our access to this meeting is easier. Regarding the refugee and migration issue, as I already said, we decided to hold a special forum in Lebanon, which will be one of the many meetings in preparation for our Conference in 2018. That is, we decided that, between now and our next meeting, we will hold a number of preparatory meetings, which will really facilitate the achievement of our goal for 2018. I hope we will be able to stabilise and, in the future, impart momentum to this initiative for peace, stability and security. JOURNALIST: Mr. Minister, how easy is it, after all, for two different worlds, the Arab and European worlds, to sit down together and talk? What problems have you come up against in these initiatives of yours? N. KOTZIAS: The difference with these meetings is that they aren't meetings between Europeans and Arabs. This is a meeting of the Eastern Mediterranean neighbourhood, in which we have coexisted for thousands of years now. When we launched this initiative, the risk was that we didn't know what kind of response there would be from the other states. This year we have doubled the participation of last year, and this is in spite of the fact that most of the Arab Foreign Ministers were in Riyadh the previous day for a scheduled meeting with the U.S. president, Mr. Trump. Nevertheless, they came. And you will have seen that the Libyan representative even arrived this morning, and he had to go from Riyadh back to Tripoli, and then come to Rhodes via Athens. JOURNALIST: Mr. Minister, why do you consider this initiative for a proposed new security structure in the region necessary, and how do you see future participation in this new security structure of countries that are key to the region's stability, like Palestine and Israel? N. KOTZIAS: The reason this meeting is termed "Eastern Mediterranean" is precisely that these two countries are not invited. The reason is that we wanted to start with a positive agenda. Everyone knows that we end up talking about the conflicts in the Middle East – the wars in Syria, Iraq – whenever European and Arab states meet. There are hundreds of international events that deal with these issues. We wanted to turn the agenda around and discuss the positive things. How can we develop networks of cooperation on research, culture, education between our universities? How can we give some scholarships and promote joint research programmes? How can we develop transport? A transport network developed in this region 4,000 years ago, when, at some times, the transport network was more extensive than today. What we aspire to do, in other words, is to restore a geographical, social, cultural space with long traditions; a space that, because of the Arab world-EU divide, has lost its dynamic. We have to re-impart this dynamic to the region. And allow me to share a general thought with you. Greece has been through economically difficult years. In my opinion, these years do not have to do with just the European Union or with just our domestic policy. In my opinion, they have to do with the environment the country found itself in. Our three neighbouring countries were in a state of political instability. Fortunately, they are moving towards stability now. Bulgaria has a new government. Albania has elections in a month. Our northern neighbour, Skopje, has already held elections. We have a restless neighbour that went through the ordeal of an attempted coup, and we have, more widely, the conflict in Ukraine and, closer to home, the wars in Syria and Iraq, the conflicts in Yemen and Libya.It is obvious that this environment does not help us in the direction of more cooperation and the growth of our economy. So we have to actively change the agenda as much as we can. We have to bring out positive elements of consolidation and economic, social and cultural synergies to create a better environment for our economy. That is, beyond the issues of peace, security and relations with other states, there is an issue of particular interest to Greece: the environment in which Greece's society and economy are developing. And we have to improve this. We are in a position to consciously help matters in this direction. JOURNALIST: You had some bilateral meetings within the framework of this Conference. Would you like to give us some details regarding the bilateral meetings you had? N. KOTZIAS: It was a great pleasure to see the new leadership of the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry, and we are very pleased that, following Brussels, where she carried out an unofficial visit, her first official visit came with the Rhodes Conference. We had a long meeting with the Bulgarian delegation. I told them what we have done to date, how we need to move ahead with all of the things we did with the previous leadership for the stability and development of the region. And I also set out for them the new proposals that arose from the trips I have carried out in recent months, and these proposals were the trilateral cooperation schemes with Armenia and Georgia, and the meeting with the Visegrad countries. I think the response from the Bulgarian leadership was very, very positive and that we will move toward greater and more intensive cooperation between the two states. Allow me to make an historical observation. In Europe, we often talk about the good cooperation between France and Germany; that, thanks to the European Union, they overcame 150 years – some say 200 years – of conflicts and tensions between the two states. I underscore that, if there is a model for a change in the flow of history – a change from conflicts to deep friendship – it is the relations between Greece and Bulgaria. From the Bulgarian occupation during World War II to the fact that, at one time, to become the emperor of Byzantium you had to be called "Bulgar slayer". There is nothing left of all this in our relations, and this is why I believe that Greece and Bulgaria are a much better exemplar – with a history of hostility going back 1,500 years – than France and Germany. What's more, we had a very important bilateral meeting with Egypt – a meeting I will be continuing following the press conference – with which we have well-developed economic relations. For the first time, we had meetings with Oman, which wants to have more intensive contacts with us. We also had a broader meeting with Indonesia, which asked to have a more upgraded presence in this Conference in the future. I remind you that Indonesia is the largest Muslim country in the world, with a population of 280 million, and is one of the emerging 'tigers'. It is one of the countries – like Vietnam, which I visited recently – to which we must pay great attention for our special economic interests. We also met with Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia. What interests us a great deal is good preparation for their participation in the next international Conference we are holding on a Greek initiative, on 1 and 2 November this year, which concerns – and this is the second such meeting – the protection of the cultural and religious communities in the Middle East. Because, as you know, wonderful religious and cultural communities are being lost to the wars in Syria and Iraq – Christian populations in the region, in particular – and we have to protect those communities and given them a future in the region. JOURNALIST: A few months ago, my concern was whether, in the end, you would manage to go beyond the standard promises of politicians and implement what you wanted from the outset: For there to be this Conference for stability and security in the Eastern Mediterranean. You are showing us, some eight months later, that you set your goal and achieved it. What is the next goal at the Foreign Ministry, given that you are collaborating with states whose value to democracy is not all that clear? That is, you have to negotiate this very sensitive political issue of the democracy of these states. Thank you. N. KOTZIAS: It is true that our foreign policy is very interested in democracy, our democratic visions, the values we have and our principles, included in which are human rights. And it is well known that if you take the measure of many of the societies further south than Greece, you will not find that they meet our standards. But I have two things to note on this matter. First, these societies are open societies; that is, they are societies in which major changes really are happening. The last time I was in the Emirates, it impressed me that I saw women fighter pilots. And this indicates an open society. And the second thing I have to note – I say it bitterly and pointedly at the same time – is that defence of human rights has to first safeguard human lives. If there are no people, there is no point in talking about rights. Why do I say this? Because some countries in the West carried out military interventions in Syria. Half a million people have been lost in Syria, 12 to 14 million have been displaced, they don't have homes, they cannot secure food for their families or futures for their children, and I ask myself to what extent we – not Greece, of course, but the West – defended human rights through this disaster. This is why I continue to say that our primary goal is human life, respect for human life. And for there to be human life and respect, it is very important for their to be stability and security in the region. I want to say that, if someone tries – we won't allow him – to destabilise Egypt and, behind Egypt, Sudan, which is in a civil war, and, further down, Somalia and so on, he will cause the movement of 150 to 200 million people. And we won't see the refugee flows we saw from Syria or the other Muslim countries. We will be facing tens of millions of people on the move. I recommend to all our partners in the West not to try it. It's good for us to contribute to stability and security, to good cooperation, and every democratic aspect will have our support. But not the other way round. Not destroying human lives in the name of democracy. Because the half a million people who were lost in the civil war and interventions in Syria are no longer enjoying any kinds of rights. I want to take this opportunity to say something else: our thinking on development and cooperation in the Eastern Mediterranean is associated with a principle. In the future, we must not allow outside players to intervene in our region and use it as a testing ground for ideas and wars. JOURNALIST: I want you to say a few words about the people who helped organize the Conference. N. KOTZIAS: Thank you very much. First of all, I want to thank the Foreign Ministry itself and those who were on the front lines in this project. Second, I want to thank the Rhodes Regional Unit and the Governor of Rhodes, who was our host yesterday evening at the very beautiful castle of Rhodes. I would like to thank the Hellenic Post, which honoured us with a special postage stamp. I want to thank them because these postage stamps will carry the message of the spirit of Rhodes – as it is called by my Arab friends and colleagues – throughout the world, wherever Greek mail goes. This is our second collaboration with the Hellenic Post, because special postage stamps were also printed on the occasion of the Ancient Civilizations Forum that Greece held together with the People's Republic of China. I want to thank the Secretariat General for Information and Communication and the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT) for spreading our message to every corner of Greece. And of course I want to thank the Rodos Palace Hotel, which hosted us in a manner that satisfied our demanding Protocol Directorate, which I want to thank in particular. I want to thank Mrs. Baltas, our ambassador, and Mrs. Vagena, both of who did a great deal of work concerning protocol. I want to thank our diplomats and experts for preparing the texts and documents for this Conference. Once again we see that genuine and good people are needed to implement good ideas. JOURNALIST: Mr. Minister, yesterday we had a terrorist attack in Manchester. I'd like your comment on that. N. KOTZIAS: This morning I made a statement to the journalists who were good enough to be waiting for me at the entrance to this hall. I came in, made a statement at the meeting, and we had a minute of silence. And we had the minute of silence not just because there were victims of a terrorist attack, but also because their were young children among the victims. And, you know, the way I see it – because I myself am a parent – is that there is no more terrifying thing for a parent than losing his child. Because the loss of the young generation is absurd, it is outside of the rational order of things, and contrary to nature. We should go before our children do. Lives do not matter to terrorists – not even the lives of young people. In this sense Manchester shocked us. It shocked me personally, and I believe that terrorism, which is used to take lives when some supposedly god-fearing people play the hand of God, is the most terrifying and horrifying thing there is in human life. I believe no human being has the right to take the life of another human being. No human being can decide about the lives of others. In this sense, our Ministry always supports and does whatever it can to show solidarity with the countries, peoples and families that suffer such losses. I cannot but express my sadness once more; everyone's grief at such terrible incidents. Thank you very much.
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