The head of the Hellenic National Defence General Staff, sent a message of strength to those who seek provocations against Greece and warns that Greek soldiers will cut off the way to anyone who tries to violate our sovereign rights.
The warning by General Konstantinos Floros on Open TV comes a few hours after the barrage of publications in the Turkish press that Ankara will proceed with drilling in Greek waters to the south of Crete .
"You will find us in front of you," Floros said indirectly but clearly, to those who plan to challenge Greek sovereignty in practice. The words of the Chief of the Hellenic National Defence General Staff presented on Open TV are indicative of the degree of readiness and preparation that the Greek Armed Forces have made in recent times, after the events in Evros, but also the Turkish rhetoric for drilling to the south of Crete.
"The Greek Armed Forces are ready to fulfil their duty and carry out their mission of the Constitution from Evros to Kastellorizo if and when required," explained Floros.
In fact, the Deputy Minister of National Defense, Alkiviadis Stefanis, stated: “There are solutions. There are reactions to the actions and there are counter-reactions in the context of examining a war game at all levels."
The map sent by Turkey to the UN in March shows Kastellorizo outside the Greek continental shelf and Rhodes, Karpathos, Kasos and Crete, according to Ankara, have only territorial waters but no Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
Turkish claims are moving further west, as Turkish newspaper Yeni Safak posted another map earlier this month on the Turkey-Libya agreement, that aims to steal Greek maritime space.
Yannis Maniatis, former Minister of the Environment and Energy, stressed to Open TV that based on the coordinates published, two sea plots were assigned to the Total, ExxonMobil and ELPE (Hellenic Petroleum) consortium in the south of Crete. All the coordinates, according to Maniatis, form the indisputable and non-negotiable limits of the national sovereign rights in the Greek EEZ and the Greek continental shelf, despite Turkey's illegal Memorandum with the Muslim Brotherhood government in Libya.
Environment and Energy Minister Kostis Hatzidakis described the reports as "jokes and science fiction," while Turkey's ambassador to Athens said in an interview that before the signing of the Turkey-Libya memorandum, Greece had repeatedly called for dialogue.
Turkey plans to send a floating drilling rig to Libya and Crete by the end of the year, according to a report in the Turkish Sabah newspaper .
