Greece will launch a new initiative to secure an "extended truce" in former Yugoslavia, National Defence Minister Gerasimos Arsenis disclosed in a newspaper interview published yesterday.
"This will be the second target of the Greek initiative (in the region)," Mr. Arsenis told the afternoon daily Ta Nea, only a week after his peace mission to Pale and Belgrade with Foreign Minister Karolos Papoulias that resulted in the release of more than 100 UN peacekeepers held hostage by the Bosnian Serbs.
Mr. Arsenis reiterated Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou's statement that last week's mediation effort was only the "first important and visible step" in a "series of moves aiming at the creation of a climate and investigation of proposals for a peaceful and viable solution of the Bosnian problem".
"The prime minister's direct relations and constant contact with the Serbian leaders are well-known... The new turn taken by the (Bosnian) crisis with the hostage situation was assessed by Athens as the time when Greek mediation could be fruitful," Mr. Arsenis said. "We felt that a channel of communication among all the sides involved must be opened," he added.
Mr. Arsenis reiterated that there had been no previous consultation with or encouragement from the West, adding that it was the Greek government's firm position to safeguard peace and stability in the region. This policy, he said, combined with "Greece's friendly ties with the Serbian people, makes us the most credible mediators for resolving the crisis". Mr. Arsenis reiterated that he was opposed to continuing the air raids following the Bosnian Serbs' "goodwill gesture" in releasing the peace-keeper hostages. He said the assumption of a leading role in the region by Greece was not only appropriate but "also expected by our neighbours".
Mr. Arsenis rejected suggestions that Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic had been "disturbed" by Greece's involvement in an area traditionally considered his own stronghold. "On the contrary," Mr. Arsenis went on, "Greek-Serbian relations have been strengthened by this initiative." "Mr. Milosevic knew that my country was on his side in the confrontation with the forces against him," Mr. Arsenis said, adding that "Greece's contribution was to cementing the idea between them that Belgrade and Pale need to take each other into consideration in their planning."
The Arsenis-Papoulias Bosnia peace initiative was welcomed by the NATO defence ministers at their meeting last week and they "have realised that Greece could play a key role given its membership of the EU, the WEU and NATO and its excellent relations in the region, particularly with Belgrade and Pale".
"Even our traditional critics in the international community now praise our role. I believe that we are in a far better position in planning our next moves, although I cannot be specific at this moment," Mr. Arsenis said. "We firmly believe that security, development and diplomacy go hand-in-hand... and the Balkan countries need particular assistance in security and development since their needs are substantial and extensive," Mr. Arsenis concluded.
Greek European Affairs Minister George Mangakis yesterday expressed his "full satisfaction" at the commencement of structured pre-accession talks between the European Union and the Republic of Cyprus.
The EU-Cyprus dialogue will begin with Cyprus President Glafcos Clerides' official participation at the EU summit in Cannes and will be followed by the allocation of 74 million Ecu in Community funds to the Cyprus government.
Mr. Mangakis said the EU-Cyprus dialogue "will be similar to that established between the EU and the central and eastern European countries and the time-frame will be determined by the Spanish Presidency in July."
Meanwhile, government spokesman Evangelos Venizelos also expressed yesterday the government's satisfaction on the EU decision for the commencement of structured pre-accession talks on Cyprus' EU membership. "The decision gives specific form to the pre-accession talks, and all this naturally does not hinge on a solution to the Cyprus problem, which, as the international community is well aware, stumbles against Turkish intransigence," Mr. Venizelos said.
The EU decision was reached during a meeting of the European Union-Cyprus Association Council held on Monday in Luxembourg. Michel Barnier, the French European Affairs Minister, said the decision on the beginning of negotiations for Cyprus' accession to the EU six months after the conclusion of the 1996 intergovernmental conference was "final," adding that its materialisation would be aided, if in the meantime, an agreement was reached between the two communities to settle the Cyprus problem.
Mr. Mangakis said the clarification of the issue that a resolution of the Cyprus question did not constitute a precondition for Cyprus' accession to the European Union was a success. It was also clarified that Cyprus' accession course was not operationally and organically linked to the customs union. He said that in this way Cyprus was no longer held hostage to Turkey's will.
Replying to a questioner on possible obstruction of the pre-accession dialogue by the Turkish Cypriot side, Mr. Mangakis reiterated the Association Council's decision explicitly stating that "according to the EU the Republic of Cyprus is the sole one expressing the entire island and recognises it as the sole interlocutor. Contacts and briefing on benefits the Turkish community will obtain will pass through Nicosia." Mr. Mangakis said what was characteristic of the text on the finalised position was that all spoke of the Cyprus Republic, state, government and only of a Turkish community.
Visiting former US president George Bush was greeted with honours of a head of state as he landed in the 1,000-year-old all-male monastic community of Mount Athos, in northern Greece yesterday. Mr. Bush, who arrived here with his wife Barbara on Sunday, is cruising the Aegean on the yacht of his host, Greek shipping and banking tycoon Yannis Latsis. Mr. Latsis is hosting a 10-day cruise as a birthday present for Mr. Bush, who turned 71 on Monday.
Mr. Bush, who attended and addressed the opening Monday of the Thessaloniki branch of Eurobank, owned by the Latsis Group, landed on the peninsula without his wife, since women are barred from the monastic community.
Accompanied by the civilian governor of Mt. Athos George Martzelos, Mr. Bush visited the renowned Pantocrator Monastery, where he was treated to the traditional welcome delicacies, tsipouro (a strong ouzo-style drink), coffee and loukoums. Mr. Bush said he would like to visit other Mount Athos monasteries.
Greece yesterday expressed satisfaction over the French EU Presidency's statement on Monday, noting that the Turkish threats against Greece, if the latter extended its territorial waters to 12 nautical miles, concerned the interests of a united Europe.
Government spokesman Evangelos Venizelos expressed the government's satisfaction during his regular press briefing yesterday. He added that Greece was continuing to lodge protests over the Turkish threats, noting that the Foreign Ministry had sent a letter to the UN Secretary-General regarding the matter, while ambassadors accredited to all the EU countries had been briefed an d European Affairs Minister George Mangakis had briefed his EU counterparts at their Luxembourg meeting on Monday.
Mr. Venizelos said a protest would also be lodged with the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), while Parliament President Apostolos Kaklamanis was sending letters to his counterparts. The government spokesman said no discussion had taken place at Monday's foreign ministers' meeting of the EU-Turkey customs union.
At the meeting Mr. Mangakis briefed his counterparts on Turkey's reaction concerning possible expansion of Greek territorial waters and the possibility of unpleasant developments in the southern section of a united Europe. The Turkish National Assembly last week passed a referendum authorising the Turkish government to take "all necessary measures, including military steps," to obstruct any expansion.
The Turkish resolution followed the Greek Parliament's ratification of the Law of the Sea convention under which Greece can extend its territorial waters from six to 12 miles. Greece said it did not intend to make use of this sovereign right at the moment, but retained the right for a more appropriate time.
"We face a dangerous case of disdain of international legal order and unprovoked military threat... We wish to bring to your attention our protest of this case, which not only offends Greece but also international interests and, of course, those of a united Europe," Mr. Mangakis told EU foreign ministers.
The French president of the Council of Ministers, Michel Barnier, agreed that the incident concerned the interests of a united Europe and said the French presidency is "noting" the Greek protest.
Mr. Mangakis told reporters on his return to Athens last night that his EU counterparts had accepted Greece's protest against Turkish threats. He said the Greek government's position "that Greece finds itself before a flagrant threat of war, also putting foreign interests, in the region and within the EU, at stake," has been accepted by Mr. Barnier.
Foreign Minister Karolos Papoulias said yesterday that "we are not daunted by Turkey's threats" while National Defence Minister Gerasimos Arsenis said that the Greek government "will exercise the right (to extend territorial waters to 12 miles)... at the appropriate time." He said the Turkish government was perpetuating a state of tension in its relations with Greece in an effort to overcome serious, domestic problems. "We are not going to fall into the trap," he added.
Main opposition New Democracy party spokesman Vassilis Manginas criticised the government yesterday for not responding to "this cowardly and unacceptable Turkish provocation." Mr. Manginas said Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou "did not make use of the opportunity during his Paris visit to raise the issue and renounce Turkish provocation". The spokesman branded as "inexplicable" the fact that no official demarche has been launched with the Turkish ambassador to Athens.
National Defence Minister Gerasimos Arsenis revealed in a newspaper interview published here yesterday that NATO member-countries were planning to exercise "co-ordinated pressure" on Turkey to change its stand on the activation of Alliance headquarters in Greece.
Mr. Arsenis, who attended a NATO defence ministers' meeting in Brussels last week, said "we had a dramatic change, a significant diplomatic victory for Greece, at this meeting". "Turkey found itself isolated," Mr. Arsenis told the Athens daily "Ta Nea". The Alliance, "headed by Germany and followed by the United States -- countries traditionally close to Turkey -- supported the Greek positions," he said. Consequently, the Turkish veto on the NATO headquarters in Larissa and its opposition to the establishment of an Alliance Division in Thessaloniki "is no longer against Greece but against all of NATO".
Mr. Arsenis said he believed that NATO countries would be pressuring Turkey to back down on its positions before the autumn meeting of the Alliance defence ministers. Mr. Arsenis denied reports that Greece was pressured into lifting its veto on financing the NATO headquarters in Izmir. "The reports are not true. The Greek reservation, as the veto is called, was not lifted. There can be no infrastructural works at the Izmir Headquarters. What the Greek government agreed to is that the freeze on financing of operational expenses (salaries, trips, etc.) initially to begin at the end of June would be extended to the end of September. If there is no progress by then, the freeze on funding will go into effect automatically," Mr. Arsenis explained.
The justice and foreign ministries have tabled a draft law in Parliament concerning the ratification of an international individual and political rights pact which most European countries have already ratified.
The pact incorporates basic principles announced by the World Proclamation of Human Rights, promoting individual freedom to a prominent principle and inviolable international value constituting the basis of law, the state of justice and peace in the world. The ministries proposed the ratification of the bill on condition Greece will make an explanatory statement that the Greek republic considers that clauses contained in article 27 of the agreement will not harm the implementation of Lausanne Treaty clauses concerning protection for minorities and that clauses will not be applicable immediately.
Article 27 refers to the state's commitment to protect people belonging to ethnic, religious and lingual minorities, not to intervene in manifestations of their cultural life and allow the free worship of their religion and use of their language. The pact includes a complete list of citizens' individual and political rights.
State ministers said yesterday some 500 mobile and pre-fabricated homes would be set up in the quake-hit region of Kozani and Grevena, Northwest Greece by the end of June. The announcement was made after Environment and Town Planning Minister Costas Laliotis chaired a meeting of competent cabinet officials.
A powerful earthquake measuring 6.6 on the Richter scale left thousands homeless in the Kozani and Grevena regions last month. About 5,000 buildings were flattened and 7,000 more were damaged.
Environment ministry sources said the officials were waiting for the final approval of quake experts monitoring seismic activity in the region to begin reconstruction projects in Kozani and Grevena. The same sources said the ministers also agreed to extend the grace period of loan payments or debts to the state by the quake victims.
The first Greek ambassador to Guinea Bissau, Greek Ambassador to Lisbon Akis Papageorgiou, delivered his credentials to the president of this west African state Bernardo Vieira and had a series of contacts with the prime minister, the foreign minister and other government members.
Guinea Bissau is one of the countries participating with small military forces in many UN peace missions in Africa (Angola, Rwanda, Benin and Mozambique) and its participation in the UN force in Bosnia is being discussed.
Mr. Papageorgiou assured the president and the government of Greece's desire to develop political and economic relations and co-operate with Guinea Bissau at the UN and other multipartite international organisations on issues of peace and development.
Government spokesman Evangelos Venizelos yesterday criticised main opposition leader Miltiades Evert for stating that the forthcoming wedding of former king Constantine's son, Paul, in London on July 1, is simply a social event.
He said the statement was not up to the standard of conduct required of the leader of the main opposition when referring to the country's constitutional order. A number of invitations to the wedding sent to ND party deputies last week, and referring to the former king as 'King of the Hellenes,' caused friction inside the party, with statements ranging from outright acceptance to calls for referral to the ethics committee for accepting the invitation.
Mr. Venizelos added that Mr. Evert, with his stand, provided an alibi to those deputies challenging the constitutional order, which, despite not being in danger, ought to be respected at all times, and not only when crises appeared. It was dangerous to consider an event in which the host appeared as 'King of the Hellenes' as merely social, he concluded.
Yesterday, ND deputy Popi Fountoukidou said the "government must make good use of the former king's connections abroad in order to promote national issues".
The founding Charter of the Union of Balkan Bar Associations, comprising the Bar Associations of Albania, Cyprus, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Romania and Greece, will be signed in the Centre of International and European Economic Law in Thessaloniki on June 22, president of the Thessaloniki Bar Association Giorgos Ignatiadis told a press conference yesterday.
He expressed the hope that certain problems regarding Bulgarian participation, arising from a request that the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) also participate under the name of Macedonia, will soon be overcome.
The ceremony will be attended by the justice ministers of Albania, Cyprus, Serbia, Greece, the Greek Minister to the Prime Minister's Office, and a delegation from the Russian Bar Association. Mr. Ignatiadis said the setting up of the union was very significant, as "our country's future is both in Europe and the Balkans, where a small common market is being formed, and the economic relations developing are giving rise to a mesh of legal rules to which the Greek lawyer is called upon to provide answers".
He said that Turkey was also invited to join but replied that it would examine the matter later, Croatia refused to join, stating that it was a central European rather than a Balkan country, while Slovenia had not replied to date.
The Union of Balkan Bar Associations will be permanently housed in the building of the Thessaloniki Bar Association, in Tsimiski Street, along with a data bank containing the bodies of law of Greece and the European Union.
Respected journalist and literary critic Professor Giorgos P. Savvides, who left an important mark on post-war Greek letters, died on Saturday from a heart attack, aged 66.
Savvides received a doctoral degree from the University of Thessaloniki in 1966 for his landmark work on 'Publications on Cavafy, 1891-1932. Description and comment. A bibliographical study'. He taught Greek Literature in Thessaloniki, Harvard, and Cambridge.
Government spokesman Evangelos Venizelos expressed the government's deep sorrow at the death of Professor Savvides.
The infringement of human rights due to occupation and the non-implementation of UN resolutions on Cyprus was denounced in a resolution by the second European Inter-Parliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy concluded in Moscow yesterday.
Parliaments of 16 countries were represented at the Assembly which also called for the lifting of sanctions against Yugoslavia, stressing that during the three-year period they were in force they proved ineffectual, while harm was not only caused to the Yugoslav economy but to that of the entire region as well. The two resolutions received a majority vote, after proposals were made primarily by Cypriot, Greek and Yugoslav deputies.
Russia was called on to use its clout as a permanent member of the Security Council to protect the rights of Orthodox peoples. Greece was also called on to utilise its role as a European Union member to support Orthodox religious programmes in public education.
Participants repeatedly stressed they were not aiming at creating an axis against anyone. The Assembly agreed that decisions should require an increased majority.
Russian communist deputy Viktor Zorkalchev was elected president, deputy Orestis Papastratis secretary-general and Vassilis Korachais alternate secretary-general. The next Assembly will take place in Sofia in June 1996.