«We will take all necessary legal steps to overturn this designation, and we will succeed,» emphasizes Minister of Development and Investment Adonis Georgiadis in a post he shared today on social media ‘regarding the entire fiasco surrounding Turkey’s registration of the term «Turkaegean“ as a trademark.”.
Among other things, the minister notes that «the Turks submitted their application directly to the European Union Intellectual Property Office rather than to us; there, an examiner from a northern country viewed the matter purely from a bureaucratic standpoint, that is, she determined that no one else had registered this trademark and granted it to the first applicant—in this case, Turkey. Thousands of trademarks are automatically registered every day through the same process. There was no approval from a higher political level, nor do the European Commission or the EU bear any responsibility…All of this took place at a low bureaucratic level, which is why there was no political reaction.» He adds that the relevant departments of the Ministry of Development and Investment here had no authority to either approve or reject it, and the internal investigation was ordered «not necessarily to punish anyone, but to see what went wrong in the process and to correct it.».
Specifically, the minister states the following:
«About Turkaegean
First of all, in politics, when something goes wrong—whether you’re to blame or not—you must show courage and apologize. We don’t do everything perfectly, nor do we always know everything. So, as someone who was genuinely distressed by our government’s delayed response to Turkey’s adoption of the term “Turkaegean,” I have apologized, even though I myself was never negligent, was never informed, and did not react or could have prevented it but did not. We will certainly take all possible legal steps to have it annulled, and I believe that with the right legal arguments, we will succeed.
However, we must put the discussion on this issue into its proper perspective, far removed from the absurdities of the press, such as «I’d walk back»—a remark made by the man who, through the Prespa Agreement, officially recognized the name “Macedonia” (and not merely a commercial trademark). And hypocrisy must have its limits.
So let's take a look at this case step by step:
A) The registration of this trademark does not infringe upon our national sovereignty in any way, and no, the Turks have not taken the Aegean from us. In fact, we continue—now, perhaps, even with Turkey’s indirect recognition—to have full ownership of the authentic, Greek term «Aegean,» which has been in use since ancient times.
B) The Turks submitted their application directly to the European Union Intellectual Property Office rather than to us; there, an examiner from a northern country viewed the matter purely from a bureaucratic standpoint, that is, she determined that no one else had registered this trademark and granted it to the first applicant—in this case, Turkey. Thousands of trademarks are automatically registered every day through the same process. There was no approval from a higher political level; neither the European Commission nor the EU bears any responsibility; nor did Europe “sell us out,” nor any of the other nonsense that was said. All of this took place at a low bureaucratic level, which is why there was no political reaction.
C) The relevant departments of our Ministry had no authority to either approve or reject it.
D) Since that is the case, why did I order the internal investigation? Because no one from that agency informed the political leadership so that we could decide for ourselves whether or not we wanted to file an objection against this trademark. The internal investigation, therefore, is not necessarily being conducted to punish anyone, but to determine what went wrong in the process and to correct it. Obviously, I do not question the patriotism of anyone—and certainly not of any employee of our Ministry or other Ministries. However, this mistake presents an opportunity to change the way we operate. The findings of the internal investigation will point this out to us in detail.
E) As Minister, I had gone to Parliament at an unexpected time and explained that this agency was not functioning as well as I would have liked, so I abolished it, transferring its responsibilities to the Industrial Property Organization, which operates at a significantly higher level. This authority was transferred to the Hellenic Industrial Property Organization (HIPO) this past May—that is, after the events in question. Consequently, HIPO has no connection to this matter and could not possibly have any connection to it.
(f) The hypocrisy of my political opponents on this issue and their attempt—once again—to politically destroy me has this time crossed every line. Suddenly, from being a «dangerous far-right nationalist»—as they have consistently accused me of being all these years—I have now become a «traitor» and «Turkish Adonis.» Note that this «sensitivity» came from parties and people who believe «that the sea has no borders,» that «the Aegean belongs to its fish»—accounts and parties that, for example, relentlessly accuse Greece of so-called “pushbacks,” adopting all of Turkey’s propaganda regarding the Aegean, suddenly became outraged—supposedly—over a trademark… Hypocrites…
Finally, let’s tell Mr. Tsipras that, of course, during his term in office, the Turks were promoting the «Turkish Aegean» and back then (the photo is from 2018), he didn’t even go anywhere on foot, nor did he protest anywhere.
»Finally, I’ll say it again: because this really bothers us, we will do whatever is legally necessary to overturn this provision, and we will succeed."
