Alternate Minister of Foreign Affairs Sia Anagnostopoulou gave an interview today to News 24/7 radio and journalists Elli Triantafyllou, Manos Chorianopoulos and Giorgos Karelias. Ms Anagnostopoulou referred to the Turkish provocativeness and the violations at the Cypriot EEZ, noting, “We are always prepared, always on alert. Cyprus is not alone. We are working closely with Cyprus and, of course, the European Union, which, as we saw during the recent Council in Sibiu, Romania, denounces and condemns Turkey’s provocative stance. We are fully cooperating. We are not afraid; we are monitoring what is happening in the entire area, but mainly in Cyprus. Cyprus has the European Union, international law and Greece by its side. Things are under complete control. Cyprus is anything but alone.”With regard to Turkey in particular, the Alternate Minister stated, “It seems that over the last few years with Mr Erdogan, Turkey has been following a revisionist policy and that does not make things easy in the area, but creates disturbances. Turkey istrapped in its own policy; it has opened up major issues without having the alliances it should. And while it had set off with zero problems with its neighbours, it is at a point where it has some sort of problem with each of its neighbours. That’s not good. On the part of Greece, we believe that Turkey must remain on its European course, both for internal and democratisation reasons and for reasons of peace and stability in the area.”With regard to Greece’s foreign policy, Ms Anagnostopoulou noted, “In the last few years, the country has managed to create a web of alliances and agreements in the entire area. It has managed to become a country with regional, European and international friends. We are seeing that there are cores of instability in our area. What a serious country should do is to create an opening, a web, a network of interrelationship and solidarity partnerships.” The Alternate Minister also added, “I would also like to mention the Prespa Agreement, which raised a lot of dust and was used as a tool. Just imagine our northern borders being a black hole, without any cooperation. That would not have been at all good for Greece. Our foreign policy has been such over the last few years that allows us to be on alert on the one hand, but without any major concerns on the other.
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