Mitsotakis: He will not make ping pong statements with Erdogan

The Prime Minister referred to Ankara's saber-rattling and made it clear that he would not make any ping-pong statements with Erdogan. At the next summit to condemn Turkey's aggression, but also on the wholesale gas cap

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis raised Turkey's aggression and the proposal for a cap on the wholesale price of natural gas at the extraordinary European Council Summit in Brussels, where an agreement was reached to impose an embargo on Russian oil.

The Prime Minister told Ankara that name-calling would not be tolerated, but made it clear that he would not engage in a ping-pong match of personal insults with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. “I will not do psychoanalysis and internal interpretation of the possible deadlocks in which the Turkish leadership has found itself,” Mitsotakis said.
Regarding Ankara's new attempt to raise the issue of the sovereignty of the Greek islands, the Prime Minister replied that Greece rejects even the most absurd arguments with composure, self-confidence and always relying on principles, values and respect for international law.

He also recalled that: “This is what we did with the letter we sent to the UN, where we deconstructed in a cold manner, without emotional outbursts, Turkey's “arguments” - without quotation marks.” And he stressed: “This is what we will continue to do. We are never going to be the ones to resort to aggravation, insults and personal characterizations.”.

The Prime Minister even reiterated, as he received a barrage of questions on the issue of Turkey's challenge to the sovereignty of the Aegean islands, that: “Turkey's ‘arguments’ in quotation marks have been adequately deconstructed through the letter we sent to the UN. This is a debate we have absolutely no reason to enter into.”.

Mitsotakis also commented that: “If Turkey was bothered by my visit to the United States, by my speech in Congress, that is its own business. But in any case, everyone should understand that Greece has allies. It belongs to the European family, it has a strategic relationship with the United States and obviously it has every right and obligation to use its alliances for the benefit of defending its national interests.”.

The Prime Minister said that he informed his European partners about the recent upsurge in Turkish aggression. “Once again I said that such provocations, such provocations, cannot be tolerated by Greece or the EU,” he stressed.

Mitsotakis referred in particular to his meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, to whom he showed a map of the “blue homeland” as proof of Turkish aggression towards Greece.

“I made it clear to the Chancellor, with whom I had a very friendly discussion, that there is no policy of equal distances from one EU member state to another EU member state, which is directly threatened by its neighbour, which has the status of a candidate country,” the Prime Minister said.

He assessed that the announcement of the German Foreign Ministry, which was moving in the logic of Pontius Pilate, had rather... procedural character and that Mr.Solts fully understood the extent of the problem, noting that the map of the “blue homeland” is “the best proof to even the most skeptical that Turkey threatens us and we do not threaten Turkey.”

The Prime Minister also said that he asked the EU leaders at the Summit, if Turkey insists on this absurd and dead-end strategy, to discuss the issue of Turkish aggression again at the next, regular, European Council and there to be a clear reference in the conclusions with an explicit and clear condemnation.

The EU again leaves the gas price cap for later
But even among the issues on the agenda of this Extraordinary Summit, there was no great good news - and certainly not expected - as the EU once again kicks the can down the road of taking really brave measures to deal with the energy crisis.

Mitsotakis reiterated the proposal for a cap on the wholesale price of natural gas and as he said, this time he had more leaders with him, but it was finally decided that there will be a reference in the conclusions that the Commission will also examine this measure.

“Greece is not going to wait for the EU to provide support to households and businesses,” the prime minister reiterated, referring to the national electricity price programme.

Food security and Greek shipping

The Summit also discussed the issue of food security. Mitsotakis and many other leaders expressed concern that over 20 million tonnes of grain are currently trapped in Ukraine, as sea routes through the Black Sea are practically blocked and the possibilities to transport it by rail are limited.

The Prime Minister said that the EU supports the UN initiative to create - in de facto consultation with Russia - a maritime humanitarian corridor, which will allow valuable grain to leave the port of Odessa, so that remote poor countries do not have to pay for the bride of war. “Of course Greek shipping will have a very important role to play in case we could achieve such a solution, as the biggest shipping power in the EU,” Mitsotakis said. In doing so, the prime minister also wanted to make a repartee to Ankara, which is trying to upgrade its own position by mediating with Moscow for free movement of goods in the Black Sea.

Asked whether the new EU embargo on Moscow will have an impact on Greek shipping, Mitsotakis noted that de facto less oil will be transported from Russia to Europe, but stressed that there are no sanctions concerning the transport of oil to third countries. “What is certain is that there is no horizontal ban and I believe that there is no substantial consequence for commercial shipping” , he assessed.

Mitsotakis: When were Tsipras' predictions confirmed?;

The Prime Minister once again refuted the scenarios of early elections, this time on the occasion of the predictions of SYRIZA President Alexis Tsipras that polls will be held in the autumn in order to prevent the government from collapsing due to the lack of precision.

“I want you to tell me how many of the opposition leader's predictions have been confirmed so far,” Mitsotakis sarcastically commented, adding: “Elections will be held at the end of the four-year term, as I have pledged many times.”.