The head of Turkey’s armed forces was in Athens on Wednesday to exchange views with his Greek counterpart on the Balkans as part of the annual meeting of Balkan chiefs of defence and general staff.
The 11th Balkan Countries CHODs Conference brought together the chiefs of defence/general staff of Greece, Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Montenegro, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), Romania, Serbia and Turkey, as well as the heads of NATO and EU’s military committees and the commander of Allied Joint Force Command Naples.
Addressing the conference was President of the Hellenic Republic, Prokopis Pavlopoulos who called for more cooperation between the armed forces of the Balkan countries in order ensure peace and stability in the region.
"These are self-evident conditions which I am certain you all share...the Balkan nations have bitter past experiences. It is time we learned from them and worked together in our difficult and troubled times," he added.
Greeks were well aware, Pavlopoulos said, that "the things uniting us are many more than those that can divide us" and that only through peaceful coexistence would the Balkans be able to carve out their own role in the wider European framework.
"In this framework, Greece extends a hand of friendship and good neighbourliness to all Balkan countries...We say this with love but also concern. The challenges are many and the responsibilities are great. Even greater is our potential, provided that we can divine the message of the times and the deeper concerns of our people," he said.
