The statement by Marco Rubio that Turkey cannot acquire F-35s under the current regime was conveyed by Tasos Hatzivassiliou on OPEN station, where he also addressed the “Blue Homeland” bill. “Mr. Rubio’s position was clear, Turkey will not acquire F-35s under current conditions,” clarified the Serres MP and Secretary for International Relations and European Union of New Democracy. Moreover, according to him, this particular “line” is not about the US government, but something that comes from Congress. From the moment Turkey acquired Russian missiles in 2019, it was removed from the F-35 program. Thus, as Tasos Hatzivassiliou said, “it would have already received 100 F-35 aircraft by now”. However, it is not currently a co-producer country. Thus, the US Secretary of State made this specific statement.
Hatzivassiliou: “Tension in the Aegean must not escalate”
Tasos Hatzivassiliou, then, speaking about the bill for the Blue Homeland, claimed that Greece has proceeded with legal procedures. Specifically, the former Deputy Foreign Minister emphasized that “Greece sent messages and informed allies and partners. Mr. Hatzivassiliou noted that, according to leaks from Turkey so far, the controversial “Blue Homeland” bill is postponed to the fall, a development that, as he mentioned, constitutes a small positive step, so that tension in the Aegean does not escalate during the summer period. He stressed, however, that there was no official government announcement from Ankara.
He emphasized, meanwhile, that those who accuse the government of supposed silence ignore or conceal the fact that Athens has already moved methodically, highlighting the ongoing activity of Foreign Minister Giorgos Gerapetritis. In the same context, Mr. Hatzivassiliou pointed out that “the Turkish reaction is not unrelated to the legal initiatives undertaken by the Greek government in recent years. Specifically, he spoke about maritime spatial planning, national marine parks, EEZ agreements with Italy and Egypt, which, as he said, intersect the Turkish-Libyan memorandum, as well as the defensive support that Greece provided to Cypriots and Bulgarians. As he emphasized, “Turkey did not expect that there would come a time when Greece would have,” as he characteristically said, “a defensive protective eye from the Danube to Syria“.
