US presidential adviser George Stephanopoulos will have talks with Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou next week in Athens, government spokesman Evangelos Venizelos announced yesterday.
Mr. Stephanopoulos met yesterday with Foreign Minister Karolos Papoulias at Athens airport, on his way from Ankara to Nicosia. The US official started a tour of Turkey, Cyprus and Greece late last week.
Describing his first contact with Mr. Stephanopoulos as "substantial", Mr. Papoulias said he had discussed the Bosnian crisis. "I believe that Washington's initiative on the Bosnian crisis will have good results," Mr. Papoulias said.
Asked to comment on a statement by Mr. Stephanopoulos in Ankara that "a solution (to the Cyprus problem) can only be found if concessions are made by all the interested parties", Mr. Venizelos replied: "The Cyprus problem is a simple one. The sovereignty of Cyprus has been violated and part of its territory occupied, and if we take this into consideration we can find a solution."
Mr. Venizelos also denied a press report claiming that US Ambassador in Athens Thomas Niles and US President Bill Clinton's envoy on the Skopje issue Matthew Nimetz had sought meetings with Mr. Papandreou but had been turned down.
The spokesman said that the prime minister was "always accessible", adding that there was no question of a meeting being requested which would be "of substance" that would not take place.
US Congressman Robert Menendez said yesterday that there were reasons to expect progress in the Cyprus problem since the United States, Congress and US public opinion were continuing their efforts for a solution "in the direction of a united Cyprus". Mr. Menendez was speaking to reporters after consecutive meetings with main opposition New Democracy (ND) party leader Miltiades Evert and party Vice-President Ioannis Varvitsiotis.
He said that the talks had focused on issues of bilateral interest, the problems in the greater region of the Balkans and in particular the Cyprus problem. Mr. Menendez described as "particularly important" the fact that US presidential adviser George Stephanopoulos would be visiting Ankara, Nicosia and Athens at the present time. He added that "the messages he will be conveying from the Administration are firm proof of the interest of the US government in the region and the problem".
The Congressman also had talks yesterday with Alternate Foreign Minister George Mangakis. Mr. Menendez was among the fourteen US Congressmen who tabled a draft resolution earlier this year in Congress asking for a settlement of the Cyprus problem based on UN resolutions and calling for the withdrawal of the estimated 30,000 Turkish troops occupying northern Cyprus since the invasion in 1974.
Government spokesman Evangelos Venizelos yesterday announced that Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou had sent a message of condolences to US President Bill Clinton over the death of three US diplomats in Bosnia on Saturday.
Main opposition New Democracy party leader Miltiades Evert also sent a similar telegram to President Clinton, saying "I am convinced that such brave actions which serve peace will continue to encourage many others, including our two countries, to continue common efforts for a viable and lasting solution in former Yugoslavia."
Alternate Foreign Minister George Mangakis yesterday met with a 10-member delegation of US Congressional foreign policy aides whom he briefed on foreign policy issues. After the talks, Mr. Mangakis hosted a working lunch in honor of the delegation.
Earlier, the US delegation met with National Defense Under-secretary Nikos Kouris and discussed the situation in the region. The delegation was also briefed on military matters by Chief of the National Defense General Staff Admiral Christos Lymberis and other senior officers.
National Defense Under-secretary Nikos Kouris yesterday briefed visiting North Atlantic Assembly (NAA) President Karsten Voigt on Greece's positions on security issues pertaining to the region, particularly in the Balkans and the Aegean.
The discussion focused on NATO issues and was also attended by chairman of the Parliamentary Permanent Committee on Defense and Foreign Affairs Eleftherios Veryvakis.
Mr. Voigt arrived Sunday on a five-day visit during which he will also meet with Parliament President Apostolos Kaklamanis and members of the Greek parliamentary delegation to the Assembly.
Women ministers from six Balkan countries yesterday expressed their deep concern over the situation in former Yugoslavia and said they supported efforts to find a just and permanent political solution in the region, at the end of an informal meeting in Thessaloniki yesterday.
The meeting, with the participation of representatives from Greece, Albania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Yugoslavia and Romania, was held at the initiative of Minister of Macedonia and Thrace Constantine Triarides and Under-secretary to the Prime Minister's Office Maria Arseni in view of the 4th World Conference in Beijing, whose vice-presidency is held by Greece, and in the framework of the National Mechanism for Equality.
The women ministers will lead the national delegations of their countries at the Beijing conference next month. In their resolution, they underlined that women suffered most under conditions of conflict.
Speaking at a press conference in the afternoon, Mr. Triarides said that mutual interest and the existing will for peace and co-operation in the Balkans resulted from the meeting.
Ms Arseni said it was an honor and obligation for Greece, the sole Balkan country also a European Union member-state, to utilize the Community's programmes and initiatives to develop wider co-operation with Balkan countries.
The next meeting, scheduled for autumn, will be held in Turkey after a proposal by Turkish Under-secretary to the Prime Minister's Office Ayse Baikal.
Also participating from Greece were Secretary-General for Equality Constantina Pantazi-Tzifa and Macedonia-Thrace Secretary-General Nikos Afentoulidis.
Major possibilities exist for a political solution to the problem in former Yugoslavia, but there are also open risks, former premier and main opposition New Democracy party honorary president Constantine Mitsotakis said yesterday after a meeting with Milan Milutinovic, the new Yugoslav foreign minister.
After a 45-minute meeting with Mr. Milutinovic, who up to recently was the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia's Ambassador to Greece, Mr. Mitsotakis said: "We are at the most critical crossroads of the Yugoslav problem. Major possibilities exist to proceed to a political, peaceful solution, but also open dangers." Mr. Mitsotakis expressed hope that there would be a peaceful solution to the problem "and not a solution imposed by arms".
Archbishop Iakovos of North and South America, who is attending an expatriates' conference on the island of Rhodes, yesterday criticized the United States for its attitude towards the Cyprus problem.
"We have had enough of promises. The United States stand has been linked with the UN. But this organization has not shown self-respect, having allowed one of its members, Cyprus, to be divided," he said.
Referring to the situation in the former Yugoslavia, the Archbishop offered the gloomy prediction that "if peace is not attained by September 10, then the war will spread in the Balkans".
Commenting on US presidential adviser George Stephanopoulos' current tour of Turkey, Greece, and Cyprus, he said it was of an exploratory nature.
Departing from Iraklion yesterday at the end of a summer vacation on the island of Crete, Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou said "changes will take place at some time."
Mr. Papandreou declined comment on a statement by Commerce and Industry Minister Costas Simitis that he was the target of a "war of attrition." "I do not comment on comments by associates of mine and Mr. Simitis is an associate of mine," Mr. Papandreou said.
Replying to questioners shortly before boarding his flight on whether he would meet party secretary Akis Tsohatzopoulos, Foreign Minister Karolos Papoulias, Mr. Simitis and Defense Minister Gerassimos Arsenis for changes in the party and government, Mr. Papandreou said: "I will have no meeting on changes. Changes will take place at some time. I will meet some of them because my programme is heavy."
Asked to comment on government members also requesting a change in social policy, the prime minister said: "Now we are moving on to other issues. However, I would like to thank Crete and the Cretans for their hospitality and their love and I reciprocate. I am returning full of a Cretan climate, militant just as Crete is, a struggle for great ideals of our people and nation."
Mr. Papandreou avoided giving a reply when asked whether his wife, Dimitra Liani-Papandreou, would be included in the State Deputies ticket in the next general elections. Mr. Papandreou, his wife and Press Under-secretary Telemahos Hytiris were seen off at the airport by the Crete regional Secretary-General, the prefect, deputies from Iraklion and Lasithi and local officials.
The Industry Ministry and Elefsina Shipyards workers concurred last night on a framework agreement to save the yard's 2,000 jobs and keep it operating. The agreement came a week after a surprise announcement by the yards' proprietors, the Peratikos Group, that it was shutting down the yards and suspending operations in Greece.
A meeting at the Industry Ministry produced agreement with shipyard workers' representatives that: the Investment Bank (a subsidiary of major shareholder the Commercial Bank) immediately assume the temporary management of the concern; the government and creditor banks undertake to propose to the court dealing with the case that all jobs be safeguarded; and the government draft legislation for a recovery plan, including an invitation to tender for the highest bidder.
Industry Minister Costas Simitis called on workers to co-operate with the receiver, in order to facilitate the recovery plan and Alternate Industry Minister Christos Rokofyllos said the government guaranteed the unity of the concern and continuity in the present industrial relations regime in the firm.
Workers' representatives said the agreement secured the continued operation of the concern, and that no lay-offs would be accepted. General Confederation of Workers of Greece (GSEE) president Christos Protopappas, who played an important role in the negotiations, said the road to eventual recovery of the shipyard was a long one, and that GSEE would not consent to any lay-offs.
Government spokesman Evangelos Venizelos said earlier yesterday that legislative measures would be taken if necessary to safeguard jobs at the Elefsina Shipyards. Article 14 of Law 2000 stipulates that labor contracts are automatically abolished in the case of companies under liquidation.
Mr. Venizelos also reiterated statements by Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou and the government's decision to safeguard the 2,000 jobs at the shipyard.
In a related development, the Union of Greek Shipowners called for a solution to be found "at the earliest" to the problems which have arisen in the shipbuilding and ship-repair sector "within the framework of (European) Community institutions, the vital needs of shipping and the national interest". In an announcement, the union stressed the importance of the sector for the country's shipping infrastructure and ultimately the Greek economy.
Meanwhile, replying to reporters' questions, honorary president of the main opposition New Democracy party and former premier Constantine Mitsotakis strongly attacked the government's handling of the problem. He accused the government of "blatantly violating" its obligations towards the European Union and leading the shipbuilding and ship-repair sector to "destruction" and putting thousands of workers out of job.
Describing the problem in the sector as a "drama", Mr. Mitsotakis said that the economy was going from bad to worse and warned of "a great economic crisis". Mr. Mitsotakis was prime minister during the fateful sale of the Elefsina Shipyards to the Peratikos Group in 1992, part of a wider privatization programme by the then-conservative government.
Communist Party of Greece (KKE) Secretary-General Aleka Papariga has addressed a letter to Parliament President Apostolos Kaklamanis, calling for an immediate Parliamentary plenary session to examine "the situation in the shipyards and in industry in general and find solutions based on the national interest." Ms Papariga called on Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou to undertake a relevant initiative to have the debate scheduled.
Meanwhile, workers at the Plastika Kavalas company said yesterday they would be bringing their struggle to keep their jobs and the company operating to Athens and Thessaloniki. Workers will be in Athens this week to meet economic ministers in collaboration with the General Confederation of Workers of Greece (GSEE) and the Kavala Labor Centre.
Eleni Vlatsiotou, secretary of the employees' union, said "dynamic mobilizations begin now". "Apart from coming to Athens to protest, the company's employees will arrive in Thessaloniki with their families during the inauguration of the Thessaloniki International Fair (TIF) when Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou will arrive with a delegation of ministers," she said.
Angry employees forced the cancellation of the shareholders' meeting in Kavala yesterday and tempers in the city and other parts of the country over the closure, to take effect at the end of the month, were running high.
The Prefectural and Municipal Council of Kavala said they would play a "substantive role" to ensure the continued operation of the company, saying it is "a vital economic source for the prefecture".
Kavala Labor Centre President Mr. Pantiakas said the company was viable and profit-making and this would also be proved by the report to be issued by GSEE's Labor Institute (Xanthi) which assigned with a study on processing the company's figures.
Workers at the textiles industry in Filiates, Thesprotia, in Epirus, said yesterday they would begin an occupation of the factory's premises this morning to protest the decision to shut it down.
The factory's operations were suspended yesterday when the Argyros Group's board said "repeated blows" to the textiles sector in Greece had prevented it from fulfilling its targets and resulting in economic losses.
The Argyros Group had bought the Filiates industry from the Hellenic Industrial Development Bank (ETBA) in 1992 for 810 million drachmas. The enterprise's 350 employees disputed the Argyros Group's allegations, saying the enterprise had made profits and that when it was purchased in 1992 for 810 million drachmas its real value at the time exceeded 1.5 billion drachmas.
Air traffic controllers have scheduled new work stoppages for next Sunday to press demands for the implementation of a June agreement providing for better pay and conditions, in defiance of a court ruling prohibiting strike action.
A court on Sunday ruled in favor of a Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) writ and declared that strike action planned for yesterday and today was "illegal and abusive". The court also agreed to a CAA request for a ban on any further strike action by the air traffic controllers until September 15.
In addition to demands for the implementation of the June agreement, the air traffic controllers are also seeking earlier retirement age for workers.
Despite the ruling, representatives of the 500-member air traffic controllers union yesterday decided new work stoppages on Sunday from 7:30am to 10:00am and from 4:00pm to 6:30pm.
Merchant Marine Minister George Katsifaras discussed merchant marine issues with Romanian Transport Under-secretary Petru Serban Mihailescu yesterday. The two men exchanged views of the further upgrading of bilateral ties and co-operation in this sector.
They discussed co-operation in the sectors of sea transport, ports, activities of Greek firms in Danube river transport and passenger shipping and cruises.
The Romanian under-secretary said the study for a shipping agreement forwarded by the Greek side would soon be complete and that a Romanian delegation would visit Greece in the first half of next month to begin negotiations. He also invited Mr. Katsifaras to visit Romania. Mr. Katsifaras accepted the invitation.
A two-day meeting of the joint Greek-Albanian committee on transport begins today in the northern Greek town of Ioannina. The focus of the meeting will be on issues related to road and rail transport, coach connections and the transport of goods and passengers in general.
The Greek side will be headed by General Secretary for Transport and Communications Yiannis Konstantinidis and the Albanian delegation by the head of the Transport Department Pazoum Kobani.
Turkish Under-secretary to the Prime Minister's Office Ayse Baikal said men and women in Turkey wanted peaceful coexistence, a continuous dialogue and a discussion with Greece. Ms Baikal, responsible for women's issues, was speaking to reporters in Thessaloniki yesterday on how Turkish women viewed relations between Greece and Turkey.
Public Order Minister Sifis Valyrakis yesterday signed an agreement with Hellenic Vehicle Industry (EBO) President Anargyros Hatzipetros for the purchase of 30 Mercedes jeeps.
The jeeps, with 2,850cc engines and able to carry up to nine passengers, will be used by the joint police and army patrols guarding the country's borders against illegal immigration. The agreement provides for delivery within three months.
Meanwhile, some 935 illegal Albanian immigrants were arrested over the last three days in Epirus and sent back to Albania, authorities said, and port authorities in Iraklion, Crete, arrested another twelve illegal Albanian immigrants transported by a truck on board the ferryboat King Minos.
The Albanians had boarded the truck in Veria, northern Greece, and were discovered by the ship's crew en route to Crete, officials said.
They claimed they had agreed to pay the driver 45,000 drachmas upon arrival in Crete. The driver of the track, who denied knowledge of the immigrants' presence, was also arrested. The immigrants are to be deported.
Two Turks have been arrested for trying to smuggle 14 Pakistani and Rwandan immigrants into Greece, police said yesterday.
They said coast guard boats spotted an unidentified Turkish caique shortly after midnight as they were patrolling between the islands of Kalymnos, Kos and Halikarnassos and escorted it to Kalymnos.
The immigrants - 10 Pakistanis and four Rwandans - told police they had paid a Turkish man 2,000 dollars each.
The captains of the boat, identified as Adil Ipekgi and Hassan Ugar, have been involved in immigrant smuggling in the past, police said. They said Ipekgi was a crew member of a Turkish trawler that sank off Pserimos in stormy weather in November 1994, killing all 25 immigrants on board while only the three-member crew survived.
Ugar was a crew member of a Turkish boat that disembarked 18 immigrants on Kalymnos earlier this month. A police search then of the illegal immigrants' bags turned up quantities of pure heroin. Ipekgi, Ugar and the 14 illegal immigrants were due to appear before the Kos prosecutor yesterday.
Excavations in the Peloponnese have unearthed a masterpiece of ancient Greek sculpture previously thought lost. The work, known as Pasquino, depicts a scene from Homer's epic poem "The Iliad", in which Menelaus, king of Sparta in Greek mythology, carries the corpse of Patroclus from the battle after being killed by Hector at Troy.
The excavations, at the villa of Herod Atticus at Loukou, Kynouria in the prefecture of Arcadia in the Peloponnese, are led by the head of the 5th Directorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities, archaeologist Theodore Spyropoulos, and financed by the Culture Ministry.
So far, a large part of the work has been uncovered, including the larger that life-size torso of Menelaus, in excellent condition. The find is dated at about 250 BC and is the most complete of those discovered to date.
In a telegram to the Culture Ministry, Mr. Spyropoulos described the work as one of "the most dynamic and dramatic of ancient Greek art".
Attributing the work to Antigonos the Karystian, Mr. Spyropoulos said that a number of well-known copies were to be found in Italy, including those of the Loggia dei Lanzi in Florence, the Palazzo Braschi in Rome, the Museo Pio Clementino at the Vatican and the Villa Hadriana in Tivoli.
Mr. Spyropoulos underlines in the telegram that there is no similar work in Greece. In 1819, the English traveler Leake recorded seeing parts of such a work at Loukou, but since then the sculpture had disappeared and was believed lost, Mr. Spyropoulos said.