“If the “blue homeland” law is passed and the Turks decide to implement it, we will have a hot incident,” declared New Democracy MP Angelos Syrigos on Parapolitika 90.1 and the show “Opposite Microphones” with journalists Sotiris Xenakis and Vasilis Skouris. Meanwhile, regarding the withdrawal of the Patriot systems, he noted that “now that the war has ended, Turkey is returning and saying ‘I do not agree to have systems there and I demand their withdrawal,’ so for the needs of the alliance they are being withdrawn.” He added that our air defense covers all the eastern islands of the Aegean, what changes is that we stop sending signals to NATO from the radars that were installed there.
Syrigos on Patriot
Regarding the decision to withdraw the Patriot systems, Mr. Syrigos stated: “The eastern islands of the Aegean have been protected by air defense all these years; the difference that occurred in the last two months is that for the first time this was done with NATO’s blessing.
Two months ago, due to the danger that existed from the Gulf war, we asked NATO, and NATO gave its consent, to install anti-aircraft systems and for the radar signal to be sent to Naples, which is the NATO headquarters. This means that NATO accepted for the first time since 1974 our longstanding position that we have the right to have troops and missiles there because they are threatened. Decisions in NATO are mandatorily taken by unanimity; when the decision was made for the missiles and mainly the radar system to go to the specific area, Turkey reacted but was told ‘don’t speak, things are very serious’ and Turkey was forced to swallow it. Now that the war has ended, Turkey is returning and saying ‘I don’t agree to have systems there and I demand their withdrawal,’ so for the needs of the alliance they are being withdrawn, but NATO has accepted our longstanding position that because they are threatened, they can be militarized, not for the alliance’s needs anymore but for our own needs.”
He added: “Our air defense covers all the eastern islands of the Aegean; what changes is that we stop sending signals to NATO from the radars that were installed there. Now NATO considers that there is no danger and they can be withdrawn.”
Asked if the unified defense doctrine of Greece-Cyprus remains valid, he answered: “It continues to be valid.”
On the “blue homeland”
Regarding the Turkish bill for the “blue homeland,” he said: “According to information that has been leaked, the Turkish government appears to be preparing some bill that will give the Turkish president the ability to establish certain maritime zones on his own, different from the EEZ or continental shelf, for example fishing zones or ‘contiguous zone,’ which is a zone that gives you the ability for control for customs or health violations. It will give this ability to the Turkish president in certain areas that are presumably covered by the ‘blue homeland’ doctrine, meaning all islands located in the area within 200 miles of Turkey’s coasts do not have their own maritime zones. These are all the eastern islands of the Aegean. This is nothing new, Turkey has been saying this since 1974; the difference is that this is about to acquire legal force. So this will be an obstacle.”
“If this law is passed and the Turks decide to implement it, we will have a hot incident,” he explained.
Finally, he noted that: “We haven’t seen a draft law yet, we only have information from Turkey; this has mobilized the Greek government, I estimate it has sent messages to Turkey, it has sent messages to Europe, it has sent messages to the US, and the Turks in this case, seeing the reactions, will say ‘fine, we won’t bring this draft law since Greece is pressuring so much, what will we get in exchange? We want F35s.’ It’s a way to gain leverage where they don’t have any. This is also in my mind that they might do it to gain leverage to pressure for the F35s.”
