Greece’s Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias warned members of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on Wednesday to stay out of Greece’s domestic affairs saying whoever doesn’t abide with signed agreements between the EU and the OIC will “pay a price” at a European policies level.
“Any third party that intervenes in Greece's internal affairs -something no country has the right to do- and does not implement the existing agreements between the EU and the OIC whereby one side does not have the right to intervene in the internal affairs of the other, will pay a price at European policies level,” the minister said.
Kotzias issued the warning during a book presentation from former PASOK minister Nikos Sifounakis’ on the history of the Greek community in Imvros (known in Turkish as Gökçeada) and Tenedos (Bozcaada in Turkish).
“The time when some countries would condemn Greece falsely and based on lies put forth by a third country is gone,” he added.
Discussing the lessons learned from the story of the two islands, he said “you cannot succeed in a negotiation when the other side does not have a cost,” and mentioned as an example what is happening today with the OIC.
“Every year, Turkey goes [to the OIC] and raises the issue of a supposedly oppressed minority in Thrace and tries to raise an issue for the Dodecanese, claiming that there is a minority there as well. And we are speaking with friendly countries who tell us ‘yes, yes’, but when it comes to voting they forget us,” he said.
The minister said the behaviour of those countries can only have a cost in their relations with the European Union, as there is an explicit agreement that one organisation cannot interfere in the domestic affairs of the other.
He also warned against those who are “thinking and dreaming of destabilising the Balkans” and changing the borders. “Greece – and this also concerns our northern neighbour – is firmly in favour of stability in the region. We are firmly in favour of unity in FYROM - we are the only ones who didn’t interfere even today in its domestic affairs – and we will defend its existence,” he stated.
“We are no longer in the mid-war period but in an era where there’s stability which requires stability in international rules and in the implementation of international relations, but above all, it requires great respect towards borders.”
Commenting on recent comments by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who questioned the Lausanne Treaty he said “we often forget that prior to its violation, there was its non-application [of the treaty]”, which he said is the reason why, whenever Turkey brings up the issue of international treaties, Greek diplomacy reminds it about its own violations in the islands of Imvros and Tenedos.
“The violations and the policy of highlighting them do not just concern Imvros and Tenedos. It concerns the defence of international treaties and international law” in terms of self-government of the indigenous population, but also the measures for policing the islands.
“All these things were violated and the violation started with a panic which is a bad consultant in foreign policy. Tenedos was surrendered before the Lausanne Treaty was even ratified by the parliaments of Turkey and Greece. In other words, it was not handed over to the locals, that is, the Greek majority, but was handed over to the Turkish army,” he said.
