“Unfortunately, Mr Mitsotakis’s foreign policy has failed miserably and has left the country unable to exercise its sovereign rights in the region, forcing it to seek Turkey’s permission or consent in order to do so”: This was among the accusations levelled over the Greece-Cyprus electricity interconnection cable by the president of the Hellenic Left Alliance in an interview with ITV, a television station in the Epirus region (the full interview will be broadcast later, at 8.30 p.m.).
All this amounts, in the former prime minister’s view, to “a major retreat”. He added: “Turkey has become the region’s policeman, with the backing of the United States. If Turkey does not consent, we cannot exercise our sovereign rights as set out in international law and international conventions. Laying a cable is a right; it does not even require notification. Clearly, it does not require the permission of neighbouring countries either”.
At another point in the interview, he said: “Seven and a half years ago, I left the country with the EastMed pipeline in the works, a joint project between Greece, Cyprus and Israel to transport natural gas from the Leviathan fields to Europe. And Mr Mitsotakis will hand over a country facing the Turkish-Libyan memorandum and effectively unable to exercise its sovereign rights”.
According to the Hellenic Left Alliance, “the government has a duty to brief both the political parties and the Greek people, since these statements are shaping a reality that we will have to face in the future”.
Alexis Tsipras also believes the government knew what would happen: “This is all entirely planned,” he argued. What, specifically? “We say that the French asked for permission, that we did not, while Turkey is essentially saying that Greece asked for permission”.
On another subject, Alexis Tsipras said that “the country is sinking into corruption”. He explained that “in every opinion poll, the overwhelming majority of citizens identify corruption as the country’s biggest problem. More than 90% say that it is a corrupt country”.
In addition, the president of the Alliance cited data from “reputable international organisations that measure corruption at European level, such as the V-Dem (Varieties of Democracy) index at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, which finds that corruption in the country has worsened by 60% from 2019 to 2026” — and this concerns “corruption in the executive and judicial branches, which is extremely worrying”.
SOURCE: AMNA