[ALBSA-Info] Kathimerini's comments on Simitis, terrorism

[Agron Alibali]

Kathimerini, 12. January 2002
Editorial
Beyond the visit

Prime Minister Costas Simitis's visit to Washington took place in a friendly and relaxed atmosphere, as he said, but regardless of any public statements (notably, Greek officials were the only ones to make statements, as the American ones kept silent) attention should now focus on the future as the country faces some grave challenges. 
The issue of terrorism dominated the Washington talks and Simitis provided assurances that soon "there will be positive results," pointing at the disruption of the November 17 terrorist group. There should be no doubt that the US administration will keep a close eye on future developments in this sphere. 

The prime minister openly acknowledged the differences between Athens and Washington on the issue of Europe's nascent rapid deployment force, as the US insists on a quick settlement of the issue in the framework of the joint US-British informal initiative in order to extract Turkey's consent without taking Greece's interests into consideration. Simitis put forward Greece's position regarding the independence of a European defense, and the question concerns the way in which the government can reverse the present situation. 

This will be a crucial year for a series of Greek foreign policy issues, and it was undoubtedly helpful that Simitis had the opportunity to exchange views with the American president in a period marked by a radical transformation of US priorities in the wake of the September 11 terrorist strikes. 

But beyond the broader geopolitical imperatives, which also affect our country, Greece has specific problems to deal with, mainly in connection with Turkey, whose policy has remained unchanged through the process of Greek-Turkish rapprochement. 

During his meeting with President Bush, Simitis did not raise the issue of Greek-Turkish relations and as regards the Cyprus issue, the US stance appears unaltered as the prime minister admitted during the press conference. 

Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit's visit to Washington will be revealing in terms of the way in which the US president treats the leaders of the two allies. But the behavior of Turkey after Ecevit's visit to Washington, both on the Cyprus issue and the Aegean Sea dispute, will reveal whether there was really an essential intervention by Bush to restore normality in Greek-Turkish relations on the basis of international law.

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'Greeks do not look back, they look ahead,' declares an angry Simitis
Press conference in USA shows the prime minister is determined to change the general way of thinking

ANA A rare show of anger from Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis came late Thursday night in response to questions at a press conference in Washington DC. 'Greece did not come here as a defendant,' Simitis told journalists. 

Prime Minister Costas Simitis's visit to the United States came at a time in which several major issues concerning Greece are up in the air, with Greek news media concentrating their coverage on how much pressure US officials would place on the Greek prime minister to accept solutions that would not be entirely in Greece's favor. 

The issues involved include the efforts to solve the problem of the EU's nascent defense force, in which Washington was expected to push a compromise it and London have proposed giving Turkey a say in the force's operations, especially in regions of interest to it such as Cyprus and the Aegean. On Greece's domestic terrorism problem, US news media and former officials have kept up a steady stream of suggestions that Athens is not doing enough to arrest members of November 17, raising expectations that Simitis would come under pressure from US officials. This prompted Simitis to declare before he left Athens on Tuesday: "It is obvious that we do not bow to pressure... I believe as well that the USA realizes that we will not accept pressure." He added: "The time is long gone when the prime minister of Greece would go to some countries in order to hear recommendations for a certain policy. This is no more." 

But at a news conference in Washington late on Thursday, after what he described as "a very good meeting" with President George W. Bush, Simitis was asked once again whether US officials had raised the issue of a list of terrorism suspects that some reports and former US officials have said exists and the Greeks have failed to act upon. Simitis took the opportunity to put on a very untypical display of anger, pressing the point that Greece does not have to act like a defendant before a prosecutor, or an apologetic school pupil before a teacher. Greece, he said, is an ally that has come to speak with friends. Below is an excerpt from Simitis's news conference: 

"Greece did not come here as a defendant, I want you to understand that! This is a conversation among friends. It is a conversation between people who want to cooperate, who have common problems. And if there are some problems between us, such as terrorism, we recognize this, we know it, we want to solve it. But let us tell the truth: Is this a disgrace? That we haven't solved the problem after so many years? It is not a disgrace at all. But, at the same time, we can say also that we have not been alone all this time. There have been experts from the United States and other countries in Greece for about 15 years. And the result is mostly our responsibility, but it is not ours alone. It also weighs on those who offered to cooperate with us, in a way. 

"So, international negotiations are not always between prosecutors and defendants. This is a mentality - if you will excuse me saying so - from 1950 and from the principles of the decade of the 1950s. Forty years have passed since then. And if I emphasize this, it is because we must give the Greek people some pride... Nothing is going to happen, because there is nothing for us to be afraid of. Why should we be afraid? We have achieved noteworthy things. 

"As you saw, President Bush looked at the euro coin [which Simitis gave him during a photo opportunity] and showed interest in it and discussed it. And he saw the Greek side of the coin and saw that we have a presence, even in this simple way. So why should we feel that we are suspects in a way, something like school students who have to explain to the teacher what went wrong in class. For God's sake! That is not Greece. I want you all to understand that! 

"Greece is different. So if you want to talk seriously, if you want serious discussions, if you deal with problems systematically, others will respect you. And this depends on us. Behavior in which we say this must happen or that must happen does not help gain respect. It shows small people. We are not small. For goodness sake! And I want you to publish this. Because Greece and the Greeks need objectives, objectives in the future. Greece and the Greeks turn their backs to the past, they do not look back, they look ahead, they do not see disasters. Disasters are not coming. But this depends on us. If we are serious we will have a future. We want this future, we are creating it, we believe in it."

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Gains, open issues from PM's US visit
He stresses focus on security

Prime Minister Costas Simitis ended his official visit to Washington yesterday with many "gains" but also with many open fronts that Greece will have to negotiate its way through in coming months. 
After meeting with President George W. Bush on Thursday, Simitis met also with Secretary of State Colin Powell and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. 

During his contacts, Simitis managed to put across the message that Athens is working systematically and intensively to eradicate the November 17 terrorist gang, none of whose members has been arrested since the group emerged at the end of 1975. This remains a top priority for the US leadership. On the other hand, Simitis did not manage to change Washington's conviction that a solution to the problem of the EU's rapid reaction force has to be found as soon as possible (despite Athens's objections to a US-British compromise giving Turkey a say in the force's activities in the Aegean and with regard to Cyprus). Also, the Greeks expected richer results with regard to the Cyprus issue, with the Americans taking pains to avoid committing themselves to use their influence with Ankara to help solve the problem this year. 

In a meeting with journalists from nine prominent news organizations yesterday, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and CNN, Simitis confronted US skepticism regarding November 17 and security for Athens 2004. 

Simitis expressed confidence that soon there would be results in the battle against terrorism, describing November 17 as a "small group without bonds with the Greek people." He stressed that his government wanted to solve the problem and that it will benefit greatly from doing so. Simitis added that recent polls in Greece have shown that expressions of anti-Americanism have receded and that public opinion is overwhelmingly in support of the war on terrorism. 

Simitis described his contacts in Washington as "interesting, fruitful and substantial." He said that the US military presence in the Balkans should continue. 

Opposition New Democracy party commented that "It is early to evaluate the results of the visit, but there are serious questions over what was done and what was not done there. The expected progress on the issues of Cyprus and the EU force did not materialize."

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'Time to finish with terrorism'

With Prime Minister Costas Simitis still in Washington, where he pledged that the problem of domestic terrorism in Greece would be solved, Public Order Minister Michalis Chrysochoidis made a stirring declaration in Parliament yesterday that Greece will "finish" with terrorism. 
This prompted debate over whether the police might be close to solving the problem. 

"Terrorism has been defeated ideologically and politically in Greece," Chrysochoidis told Parliament. "It has to be defeated operationally so that we can finish with this situation. And we will finish with it because we all want to be finished with it. Because terrorism is an agent of instability in our country and it creates problems for its reputation." 

He was responding to a question on crime tabled by members of the opposition New Democracy party. The issue of terrorism had been included in the text of their question, but in their speeches they had dropped it. Chrysochoidis, who was late arriving, responded to the text. 

Chrysochoidis criticized a paid declaration in the Washington Times newspaper by a "concerned Greek American" claiming that Greece "sponsors terrorism." 

"Some unofficial, private circles in the United States are behaving in an indecent and insulting manner at our country's expense," Chrysochoidis said. 

The minister and Athens 2004 president Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki discussed security for the Games yesterday.

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