Minister of Foreign Affairs Nikos Dendias’ interview with “Athens 9,84” radio station and journalists Giannis Lavranos and Nikos Karoutzos – highlights (28.04.2023)

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JOURNALIST: Good morning, Minister.
N. DENDIAS: Good morning to you and your audience.
JOURNALIST: Let’s start with a question related to your portfolio, as we anxiously await developments from Sudan. As far as we know, the repatriation of Greeks from there has been concluded.
N. DENDIAS: Yes, as regards those who expressed an interest in returning to their homeland, the operations have been completed. First, through many flights from friendly countries and, finally, on our own aircraft, which was stationed in Sudan.
JOURNALIST: Was there also an operation in Khartoum with Greek commandos?
N. DENDIAS: No, for God’s sake. The plane was simply accompanied by Special Forces personnel for the protection of the plane itself and its passengers, as is customary.
JOURNALIST: Do you know if there are Greeks who have voluntarily stayed in the area?
N. DENDIAS: I do know at least one.
JOURNALIST: I see. He must be really brave.
JOURNALIST: We also noticed the criticism you directed towards Brussels in regard to this…
N. DENDIAS: I absolutely mean it; it’s a shame for Europe. Europe has fallen far short of expectations in this case. I’d like to make an exception for Josep Borrell, the High Representative, who made a tremendous effort that, sadly, did not succeed.
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JOURNALIST: We heard Mr. Nouriel Roubini from the Delphi Forum saying things; okay, he hasn’t been completely accurate in all his predictions, but he has a high percentage of correct predictions.
JOURNALIST: Mr. Roubini is somewhat of a doomsday prophet.
JOURNALIST: He expects Türkiye to provoke an artificial crisis with Greece following the elections due to its difficult economic position.
N. DENDIAS: I believe it’s best for everyone to stick to their area of expertise. Greek-Turkish differences are not the field of expertise of this brilliant scientist. On the other hand, you are aware that doom-and-gloom predictions do not help much.
I can’t predict what will happen with Türkiye tomorrow morning, but what I can say with absolute certainty is that as long as Greece honors this particular government, the Mitsotakis government, as long as the Greek people honor it with their trust, national issues will be handled adequately, as they have been thus far.
JOURNALIST: Are you concerned about the climate that is currently being shaped in Türkiye? Because we see Mr. Erdogan having an illness issue; there is a widespread…
JOURNALIST: There is a general uncertainty.
N. DENDIAS: A feeling…
JOURNALIST: Yes, of a rumored illness. Okay, maybe the man had the flu; I don’t know what he might have had; and there’s also a feeling that if Mr. Erdogan loses, he will not hand over power smoothly.
N. DENDIAS: I cannot, I am not allowed to express an opinion as regards the internal political life of Türkiye. We must respect the verdict of Turkish society and hope that whichever government emerges from the will of the Turkish people will be ready to negotiate seriously the sole dispute between Türkiye and Greece.
And if possible, to resolve this dispute based on International Law, which is the only one worth discussing.
JOURNALIST: How do we see the issue of [referring our dispute to] The Hague ICJ as raised by the Turks?
JOURNALIST: With a broad agenda.
JOURNALIST: Yes, they include it in an overall… and what issues do they include?
N. DENDIAS: As regards The Hague, there’s no objection. Greece always says that.
JOURNALIST: Yes, but what issues could be included is the question.
N. DENDIAS: Regarding that, there are Greek letters, the most recent of which was from 2015 by Evangelos Venizelos that determine which issues can and which cannot be raised.
As regards those that cannot be raised, I must tell you that the Greek political world is unanimous. Nobody has ever told me to go to The Hague with an agenda including sovereignty issues, that is to have The Hague decide what is ours and what is not.
JOURNALIST: Thank you very much for the conversation.
JOURNALIST: Thank you very much.
N. DENDIAS: Thank you, take care. Have a good day.
JOURNALIST: Take care, good luck.