AHEPA shares with its audience a clip of an August 19, 2020 interview of Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis conducted by Christiane Amanpour, chief international anchor, CNN, on the topic of Turkey’s announced plan to conduct seismic surveys by encroaching upon Greece’s continental shelf.

In the interview, Prime Minister Mitsotakis said, “my message to Turkey is very simple: stop the provocations and let’s start talking as civilized neighbors,” adding that if the disagreement of the delimitation of Greece’s maritime zones cannot be resolved through dialogue that it can be taken to the International Court. 

Prime Minister Mitsotakis added Greece cannot tolerate unilateral activity by Turkey that claims Greece’s exclusive economic zone and that challenges this premise with a Turkish exploration ship and Turkish naval vessels, leading to an escalation of tensions. 

“We will, of course, always defend our sovereign rights,” he said.

Supreme President George G. Horiates stated, “We applaud the posture taken by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis toward Turkey’s provocations.  It is clear Greece is acting responsibly and not seeking to escalate tensions, but rather, to conduct good neighborly relations through dialogue, and if needed, to have disagreements resolved through international law.”

• AHEPA’s July 21 strong condemnation of Turkey’s provocations is found here.

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Founded in 1922 in Atlanta, Georgia, on the principles that undergirded its fight for civil rights and against discrimination, bigotry, and hatred felt at the hands of the Ku Klux Klan, AHEPA is the largest and oldest grassroots association of American citizens of Greek heritage and Philhellenes with more than 400 chapters across the United States, Canada, and Europe. 

AHEPA’s mission is to promote the ancient Greek ideals of Education, Philanthropy, Civic Responsibility, and Family and Individual Excellence through community service and volunteerism. 

For more information, please visit www.ahepa.org.