Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 17-01-30

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

CONTENTS

[01] Pavlopoulos:Turkey must respect the borders and the Treaty of Lausanne

[02] ND leader Mitsotakis: Turkey must respect international law and treaties

[01] Pavlopoulos:Turkey must respect the borders and the Treaty of Lausanne

"Today's violation was a very serious one because it was not only the Greek maritime borders that were violated but the borders of Europe too. The Treaty of Lausanne was violated," Pavlopoulos, who is paying an official visit to Portugal, said.

"I hope that there will be no other violation in the future because this will not only affect the bilateral relations but also Turkey's relations with Europe," said the President.

Moreover, he stressed the need to change the austerity policy in Europe because the current austerity policy causes problems such as higher debt, inequalities, unemployment. We have to persuade our European partners, he added, to change the specific austerity policy. Greece will remain in the eurozone and the European Union, he underlined.

Pavlopoulos will meet his Portuguese counterpart Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa later on Monday.

[02] ND leader Mitsotakis: Turkey must respect international law and treaties

"Greece continues to send a message of friendship and good neighborly relations with Turkey, but at the same time, the message must include the respect for international law and international treaties as well as the informal rules of good neighborly relations between two countries that need to coexist in a sensitive area," he underlined.

Referring to the decision not to extradite to Turkey the eight Turkish military officers that fled to Greece after the July attempted coup, he said that it is an issue that concerns the rule of law and not an issue of foreign policy. The Greek Justice acts independently; Greece is a European country with institutions and authorities, and these authorities, these institutions, cannot be challenged by anyone, he stated adding that Turkey's agreement (on the refugee issue) is not only with Greece but with the European Union and has financial scope for Turkey.

It is an agreement signed in an emergency situation as a necessary tool to stop the flows of refugees and migrants from Turkey to Greece, he noted and added: This agreement has been partially efficient and one of the reasons why the agreement is not working as it ought to do has to do with the fact that unfortunately the Greek government has failed, due to administrative incompetence, to rapidly process asylum applications so that those that they are not entitled to asylum return to Turkey.

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