Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 15-02-01

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From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>

CONTENTS

[01] FM Kotzias to ANA-MPA: Greece should not be treated as a pariah

[01] FM Kotzias to ANA-MPA: Greece should not be treated as a pariah

"To owe money does not mean I do not develop and abandon my rights in EU" noted Kotzias adding that "the experience I gained in the last five days, the first drafts plans and the negotiation itself, is that EU is obliged to make negotiations. You can't order if you do not want to take orders. That's the main thing I understood and I think that we won this negotiation. In the future we way lose another negotiation but we restored our country's sovereignty and the meaning of equality of each country-member within the EU. The negotiation, I received thousands of messages at the foreign ministry, gave to the Greek people a feeling of dignity, a feeling of confidence and a light air of optimism'.

Kotzias noted that "Greece's exit from the crisis is not only a matter of financial markets. It is also that the citizen must feel good, to feel that he can contribute and to have its rights and to be able to make dreams for the future. I hope that history will prove that we added a small brick towards this direction at this meeting of the EU Foreign Ministers".

Asked on the climate he encountered in Brussels, Kotzias noted "I think that because of the policy and tactics we followed and under prime minister Alexis Tsipras' instructions, we managed to pass our fundamental line 'we do not want additional sanctions on Russia' instead of being obliged to use our veto power. Of course the already agreed sanctions will continue but not an additional huge wave of sanctions wave and we preserved the European unity, there was not a rift on the issue or a rift against Russia. That's the reason why Mr.Lavrov invited me to visit Moscow and for this reason we had a discussion with him and for this reason there will be a discussion on the phone between Russian president Vladimir Putin and Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.

"I must also say that I had a phone contact with US Secretary of State John Kerry who listened with great interest to the Greek government's position explaining to him that we do not wish to undermine the democratic rights of any society or side and we want to mediate but not to open fronts. We had a very pleasant discussion with Mr.Kerry and will meet very soon".

The Greek Foreign Minister said that addressing the EU Foreign Ministers meeting he clarified that "we have a Greek minority in Ukraine and we introduced the final decision on a special note on the protection of the national minorities, a proposal on which we will be based to protect the Greeks of Ukraine. What was highlighted, because I received an invitation to visit Kiev and of course I have Mr.Lavrov's invitation, is that Greece should not become part of the problem or to break the historic relations with Russia but it can play an important mediation and promoting role in the negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, two European countries and Greece's friends".

Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias full interview is available for subscribers on ANA-MPA Web TV

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