E. VENIZELOS: Good morning.
At the UN General Assembly, we had over 20 bilateral meetings with my Foreign Minister colleagues or with Prime Ministers, as well as over ten multilateral meetings.
I also had the opportunity to address the General Assembly regarding all the major issues of Greek foreign policy – first and foremost the Cyprus issue, Greek-Turkish relations, the FYROM name issue.
I also spoke two other times within the framework of the General Assembly, at special meetings, at the Forum on Persons with Disabilities and the Forum on Sustainable Development.
If I have to single out some of these meetings, there was the meeting – institutional, of course – with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. We talked about the country’s major issues, mainly the Cyprus issue, the FYROM name issue, as well as issues concerning international policy, like Syria.
Of the bilateral meetings, of particular importance was my meeting with Mr. Davutoglu, the Turkish Foreign Minister, and you are aware of the announcements that were made following that meeting, with regard to Greek-Turkish relations and the Cyprus issue.
At the request of the Republic of Cyprus, which was announced publicly by President Anastasiades, we decided, to facilitate the process and the initiatives of the Republic of Cyprus, to accept a meeting of the Greek Foreign Ministry – on a level to be determined – with the negotiator of the Turkish Cypriot community, which is provided for by the 1960 Constitution, given that Mr. Davutoglu assured me that – on the same level, which we will determine – the Turkish government is prepared to meet with the negotiator from the Greek Cypriot community, which the Cypriot government considers a pivotal point.
And this was welcomed by many of my colleague Foreign Ministers, by the UN Secretary General. In particular I would like to note the satisfaction that, as the Cypriot government informed me, was expressed by Vice President Biden during his meeting in Washington with President Anastasiades. Naturally, we discussed other issues as well, which I will have the opportunity to go into during our discussion.
To the UN Secretary General, as well as to Mr. Poposki himself, the Foreign Minister of our neighbouring country, I had the opportunity to present the Greek position, precisely as I set it out a few days earlier to the UN Secretary General’s personal envoy, Mr. Nimetz, when he visited Athens.
I think I should make special mention, among my bilateral meetings, of my meeting with the Foreign Minister of Iran, my meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov, and my meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Kerry, within the framework of the Trans-Atlantic dinner.
Of my other meetings, I would like to mention those I had with the Foreign Minister of Albania – I will be visiting Tirana on 14 October – I saw the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Kosovo, the Foreign Minister of Serbia, the Prime Minister of Malta, the Vice President and Foreign Minister of Switzerland.
There were also my meeting with the Gulf countries, with whom we maintain very close relations – the Foreign Minister of the United Arab Emirates and Qatar – the Foreign Ministers of Libya, of Jordan, of Algeria, of Kazakhstan, and the Foreign Minister of Palestine, which I will be visiting the day after the 8 October intergovernmental meeting with Israel, where a large government delegation will be headed by the Prime Minister.
One basic issue that was a subject of discussion at almost all my meetings was the issue of Golden Dawn, of Nazism in Greece – and this issue was raised almost as much as the issue of the economic crisis.
I had the opportunity to address the General Assembly on this matter. The UN General Assembly had to hear officially, directly from the Greek Foreign Minister, that Greece is struggling to overcome the crisis and that, thanks to the sacrifices of the Greek people, the country is now ready to organize its exit from the crisis, because it has already shown a structural primary surplus of 5% of GDP – the best performance in the Eurozone. This has come at a huge cost, of course, because the Greeks have suffered reductions in their incomes and other sacrifices, but the country is fighting to regain its institutional equality and, in reality, its national independence on fiscal and economic issues.
Moreover, the international community had to hear that the protection of democracy against any form of violent conduct, against its being called into question, against racist and xenophobic conduct, which in the end turn against social cohesion and the security of Greek citizens, is assured by the Greek government.
Democracy has self-defence mechanisms, the prime mechanism being the Judiciary, which is called upon to protect democracy and the rule of law, and the reaction from the European political parties, from the European Parliament, from the Human Rights Committee of the Council of Europe and from the international new media clearly reaffirms this.
Now, everyone sees that Greece, the Greek government, the Hellenic Parliament, Greek society have the necessary resolve for the country not just to overcome the economic and fiscal crisis, but also to overcome the crisis in values, the crisis of conduct that has afflicted us for some time now.
And personally – I must tell you this – I feel somewhat vindicated, if one can say that, because I was the first to raise this issue before the June 2012 elections. I have raised it many, many times, asking for the activation of the constitutional forces, and now, better late than never, a cold-blooded, heinous murder has stimulated reflexes that should have been activated for some time now.
What is important is that we should have institutional confidence and historical memory.
A. PELONI: I’d like to ask you about your meeting with Mr. Davutoglu and the process agreed on for the Cyprus issue – whether in some way the groundwork is being laid for a quadrilateral meeting.
E. VENIZELOS: As I said in my written statement, a quadrilateral meeting is not being discussed; it was not tabled as and issue and it will not be. Greece does not agree with the idea of a quadrilateral conference. The Cyprus issue is an international issue that is being dealt with within the framework of the Secretary General’s mission of good offices.
Given that the 1960 Constitution, which is the basis for the existence of the Republic of Cyprus, provides for the two communities, the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities, and given that there have also been collocutors or negotiators on behalf of the communities in the past, we have no objections, we accept the proposal of the President of the Republic of Cyprus for us to meet with the negotiator that the Turkish Cypriot community has designated now.
Allow me to say that this is much more in line with the logic of the 1960 Constitution and with respect for the international legal personality of the Republic of Cyprus than any other format for talks.
But Greece cannot be equated with Turkey. Turkey is not just the motherland of the Turkish Cypriot community or simply one of the Guarantor Powers based on the Treaties of 1960. It is the country responsible for the military invasion and occupation, it has been found against in no end of European Court of Human Rights judgements, it has direct legal involvement in the matter, and it has a relationship with the Turkish Cypriot community that is completely different from the relationship we have with the Greek Cypriot community.
Something else substantial is also needed, which is the proposals of President Anastasiades for confidence-building measures. We support this bundle of proposals that concerns the city of Famagusta and the port of Famagusta, his whole bundle of proposals. We don’t have a response on that yet. We would like to hope that there will be a response, that, in any case, a dynamic will be created.
A. TASOULI: [Question on maritime zones.]
E. VENIZELOS: Obviously, the matter of the signed agreement on the delimitation of all the maritime zones between Greece and Albania was discussed in the meeting I had during the unofficial visit to Athens of the new Albanian Prime Minister, Mr. Rama, as well as during the meeting we had in New York with the new Foreign Minister, and it will be discussed during my 14 October visit to Tirana. And in early November the President of the Republic will be carrying out a state visit to Tirana.
As I said earlier, in my introductory remarks, the matter of maritime zones, which is also linked to the initiatives of the European Commission, is linked more generally with how we see the Mediterranean as a sea of peace and development; a priority of the upcoming EU Presidency.
So this is what we are discussing with Cyprus, what we are discussing with Egypt, what we are discussing on a trilateral basis with Egypt and Cyprus, what we are discussing on a trilateral basis with Israel and Cyprus, what we are discussing with Italy, with whom we have delimited the continental shelf since 1977. And it is reasonable – when you have delimited the continental shelf, given that the extent of the continental shelf and the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in seas like the Mediterranean are identical – to think of converting this agreement from delimitation of the continental shelf to delimitation of the EEZ as well, for whatever added value this matter has. This, too, is reasonable. The discussion we had with the Maltese – all of these share such a rationale.
As you know, the International Law of the Sea is exceptionally detailed, providing for precisely what one must do in this case, but I must tell you that the most significant thing that has happened since 1974, the most important thing that has happened since Greece ratified the International Law of the Sea in 1994, is that real exploration was begun in the field.
This is what changes the state of affairs: that Greece is carrying out exploration that is producing results, and this is also linked to the provisions of Law 4001 of 2011, which designates – based on international law – the so-called “outer limits” of our maritime zones, as provided for by International Law.
But delimitation, as provided for by International Law, is the result of bilateral or multilateral consultations – as the case may be – with the opposite and adjacent states, and this is what we have been doing with Turkey, for a long time now, since 2002. And this, as I have said many times, does not concern just the Aegean – it concerns the Eastern Mediterranean and all the maritime zones.
Now, regarding your question on Egypt in particular, as I said earlier, the trilateral meetings with Cyprus are one issue, the bilateral consultation will be carried out as fast as possible on the political level, and there will be a meeting of Technical Committees at the soonest possible time.
L. BETHANI: Can the Greek government be blackmailed by Golden Dawn, and how will you react?
E. VENIZELOS: The Greek government is blackmailed by no one – neither at home or abroad.
If you mean the familiar scenario of the resignation of Golden Dawn MPs, a large number of Golden Dawn MPs have been arrested at this time and are sub judice. We will see what the investigator and prosecutor decide, but criminal proceedings have been set in motion regarding very serious crimes.
I have never taken the scenario of resignations and by-elections seriously. No one can incite – violating the Constitution – a democratic and parliamentary crisis.
The Constitution enables the Republic to respond. No one will trivialize the parliamentary and democratic institutions and the election procedures – rest assured that they will not succeed. The country needs stability, the country must remain focused on its major goals.
A. MOSCHOVAS: Did we have any development on the FYROM name issue?
E. VENIZELOS: On the name issue? With Mr. Poposki, as with the Secretary General chiefly, I said what I said to Mr. Nimetz: that Greece is prepared to accept what the Greek political system has agreed upon with broad consensus for some years now. That is, a compound name with a geographical qualifier that distinguishes – as I said in my speech to the General Assembly – our neighbouring state from Greek Macedonia, which is part of the Greek state and a Region of the country – three regions of the country, in fact, because we have both central and western Macedonia and eastern Macedonia and Thrace; Macedonia as an historical Region of the Greek state is different from the entity of our neighbouring state. But we want this name to be a name for all uses.
This is what erga omnes means, and based on this we are prepared to support, in very specific ways, directly and at speed, the incorporation of our neighbouring country into the Euroatlantic institutions, and also to help the country’s development prospects, because we have been its most reliable and effective partner. Over the past 20 years, under the status of the Interim Accord and the ongoing meetings on the name issue, Greece has had a very strong investment and economic presence in FYROM, and it continues to have that presence. We want this state to be united, to develop, and we always send a message of friendship and good neighbourliness, but we also want to see corresponding conduct from the FYROM government; conduct that is based on International Law and good neighbourly relations, which are the fundamental criterion for Euroatlantic accession and participation for all countries.
September 30, 2013