Stavros Lygeros: How Mitsotakis “scrapped” the Foreign Minister at the Summit – The invisible damage

For the readers of SLpress.gr, the decision of the European Council for Turkey was certainly no surprise. On November 27, I published the exclusive report “What the EU Foreign Ministers said about Turkey – The maneuver of Germany and Spain”. On December 2, I published a second exclusive report “They are preparing a cold shower for us at the Summit – All the background”. Finally, on December 9, I published the third exclusive report “Summit: The Unknown Brussels Meeting – The whole diplomatic background”.

I mention all this not to exalt myself, but to show that the decision of the European Council moved on the rails that had been laid down by the joint efforts of Berlin and the Michel-Borrell duo, with the blessings of Madrid and Rome. Although all Member States fully agreed that Turkey is an offender and engages in aggressive rhetoric, they limited themselves – as I had predicted in the aforementioned reports – to painless measures.

Before referring to the so-called sanctions, it is necessary to emphasize a blatant backlash of Greek diplomacy. A few days ago – as I had revealed in the aforementioned reports – the Secretary-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Demiris, had instructed the Greek ambassadors to the Member States to take a step in order to present the positions of Athens in view of the Summit.

The four-page instructions – among other things – stated that Athens would not accept the convening of a multilateral conference on the Eastern Mediterranean, which Mitsotakis had agreed to at the October Summit. It was specifically mentioned that the Greek Prime Minister had agreed on the condition that Turkey would proceed with the de-escalation of its aggressive actions. As this did not happen, the Greek consensus has been lifted.

This is what the Greek ambassadors went to and told the foreign ministries of the member states. And what happened? Mitsotakis agreed at the Summit again that the European Council should instruct the Michel-Borrell duo to organize the multilateral conference for the Eastern Mediterranean! As a diplomatic source told us, the damage is great.

The prime minister “scraps” the foreign minister

The prime minister “scrapped” the Greek diplomatic service, making it de facto unreliable. This is not only in the eyes of European partners, who heard the complete opposite of what the Greek ambassadors had told them but also in the eyes of countries in the region, with which Greece has developed special cooperative relations, such as Egypt, the Emirates, Jordan, and Israel. According to the same source, these countries, together with Greece, were oriented towards boycotting the multilateral conference, which is being promoted by Berlin through the EU.

As explicitly stated by its inspirers, the Eastern Mediterranean Conference will be a political conference, which has a stated purpose of taking decisions to solve problems in the region. As explicitly stated in the instructions of the Secretary-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Greek ambassadors, Athens’ refusal to accept the convening of this conference stems from the fact that the legitimate Greek-Egyptian agreement on the partial delimitation of the EEZ will be questioned in order to be put on the table along with the illegal Ankara-Tripoli memorandum.

Mitsotakis is boasting because the Greek-Turkish problem has turned into a Euro-Turkish problem. What he does not seem to understand is that since Athens is indirectly but clearly instructing the EU to solve the problem, the EU will solve it according to its own interests and not according to the Greek ones. This has already been made clear by Borrell.

And of course, no arguments are needed to convince regular readers that in this case European interests (as they are now officially defined) not only do not identify but do not even converge with the Greek interests. Because if they converged, we would not have the decision we have from the Summit after so many months of obstructions, evasions, and postponements.

One step at a time, or the ball off the court!

The European Council, on the basis of the “one step at a time” logic, referred the issue to the March Summit for reconsideration. We note that it was decided from the summer and in October that the decisions would be taken at the Summit that has just ended. In other words, all the member states that wanted to let Turkey off softly, with Germany first, succeeded, throwing the ball off the court once again and even with the signature of Athens.

At the March Summit, Foreign Minister Borell, in co-operation with the Commission, will present a report on the full range of Euro-Turkish relations and include a list of possible sanctions against Turkey. We must again note that he himself had orally submitted such a list last March, but procrastination has been the name of the game.

It is worth emphasizing that in the Conclusions there is no reference to a violation of Greek sovereign rights and it is unknown whether the Greek side requested such a reference. The breach, however, does not only concern Oruc Reis’ research into a potential Greek EEZ. It also concerns the usurpation under international law of a Greek EEZ through the Ankara-Tripoli memorandum. Finally, it concerns the violations of Greek sovereignty with the frequent overflights of Turkish fighters over Greek islands.