Has Greece demilitarized the Aegean islands? Statement by A. Sirigos about the “concession”, which is confirmed by the Turks

Former Deputy Minister of Education, Associate Professor at the Department of International Law and Foreign Policy at Panteo University, Member of Parliament from New Democracy Angelos Sirigos made a statement that essentially confirms the report “Yeni Safak“on the demilitarization of the islands of the Aegean Sea.

Demilitarization of the islands of the Eastern Aegean and Dodecanese, reduction of national airspace to 6 miles, recognition of the EEZ agreement between Turkey and Libya in exchange for the refusal of the unilateral declaration of EEZ in the Aegean Sea and the Eastern Mediterranean – this was the content of Ankara’s proposal at a meeting of the two countries under the auspices of Berlin last Friday.

In a television interview, Sirigos spoke about Greek-Turkish relations and argued, in particular, that there are areas in which the Turks are interested in navigation issues and said that this is “something reasonable that we can discuss.” But then he said that “this is a concession” and that he would expect the Turks to “agree to other things, such as the remilitarization of the eastern Aegean islands.”

Για να τελειώνουμε· Συρίγος:
1 Ομολογεί αποστρατικοποίηση (!)
2 Ας θυσιάσουμε ΧΥ χάριν επαναστρατικοποίησης (!!)
3 Η διεθνής ναυσιπλοΐα διέρχεται τον Βόσπορο χωρίς πρόβλημα που περνά από 🇹🇷 ΧΥ, αλλά αφού οι 🇹🇷 ενοχλούνται μ’εμάς ας τους δώσουμε 🇬🇷 ΧΥ (!!!)pic.twitter.com/NGMtTRbQty

— Panagiotis G. Pavlos (@PGPavlos) October 4, 2023

But what does he mean by “remilitarization”? When Athens officially demilitarized the islands of the Aegean Sea, it is known that in recent years weapons systems important for the country’s defense have been removed from the islands.

https://rua.gr/news/gospol/58059-yeni-safak-gretsiya-prekrashchaet-vooruzhenie-ostrovov-egejskogo-morya-posle-soglasheniya-s-ankaroj.html

With this statement, he essentially confirms what the Yeni Safak newspaper reported yesterday, whose article was titled: “An unexpected step by Athens: the armament of the islands is stopped.”

At the same time, so far there has been no reaction from the government to the publication, although it caused a resonance even in parliament.

It is characteristic that Dora Avgeri from SYRIZA demanded an answer from the government and the Foreign Ministry to the question about the Turkish publication

“Do the government and the Foreign Ministry know about the publication in the Yeni Safak newspaper, according to which Greece has stopped arming the islands? If known, does it deny this?” – she emphasized, asking the government to respond. Megaro Maximo and the Foreign Ministry are silent for now…

Let us recall that in December 2022, between Greece and Turkey, through the mediation of Germany, secret negotiations took place.

The meeting took place between press secretary R.T. Erdogan Ibrahim Kalin and the director of the diplomatic office of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis Anna-Maria Boura, as became known from the Turkish press (Milliyet). The meeting was also attended by Jens Plötner, Adviser for Foreign and Security Policy of the German Chancellery.

The German side agreed to Turkey’s demand for the demilitarization of the Aegean Sea, and uses as an example of a “reliable guarantor” the fact that it did not allow the Greek BMP-1s sent to Ukraine to be replaced on the islands.

The old Marder-1A3s transferred to Greece by Berlin were prohibited from being transferred to the Aegean islands, and they were transferred to Evros as having little operational value. Because who will win and gain the upper hand in the event of a conflict in Thrace does not depend on several dozen (currently less than 10) Marder units.

Secret diplomacy of the Greek government, which led to the partial demilitarization of the islands and the sending of military equipment to Ukraine (BMP-1, a number of RM-70 missile launchers, FHM-92 Stinger man-portable anti-aircraft systems, etc. were removed from the islands).

In total, the following were withdrawn from the Aegean islands over the past ten months (as of December 2022):

• 122 BMP-1 with all machine gun ammunition.
• 15,000 73 mm rockets, with all ammunition, including all rockets.
• 15-25 122 mm RM-70 rocket launchers.
• 15,000 122 mm rockets.
• 20,000 Kalashnikov AK-47 assault rifles.
• 3,200,000 rounds of 7.62 mm caliber.
• 60 FIM-92 Stinger MANPADS.
• 17,000 155 mm artillery shells.
• 1100 RPG-18 anti-tank missiles.

The Greek side did not comment on Turkey’s demands. She simply noted that she “could not agree to immediate demilitarization” and mentioned the next meeting, “after the elections in Greece”…(!?). It is obvious that the discussion will not continue until the elections in Turkey next June. If the government in Athens changes, discussions about demilitarization will be interrupted. If not, perhaps by this time next year there will be a treaty between Greece and Turkey…

It is said that everything was agreed upon in advance at the infamous Mitsotakis-Erdogan dinner on the Bosphorus in order to realize the “sharing of opportunities in the economic sector” in the Eastern Mediterranean and Aegean Sea that Scholz mentioned. He publicly stated that in his negotiations with Mitsotakis he found him… “absolutely ready to come to an understanding”…

How Bing image creator on the DALL-E platform imagines the demilitarization of the Aegean islands based on the events of 2025.

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