Annalena Baerbock is not (yet) on vacation: the Foreign Minister’s next tricky trip is to Turkey and Greece. The news ticker.
- Just in time for Baerbock trip allegations against EU border guards in Greece: A secret report is said to incriminate Frontex in the Aegean.
- baerbock warns Erdogan: Athens and Ankara have been at odds for decades – Green recently sees mistakes in Turkey.
- foreign minister to visit Greece and Turkey: Annalena Baerbock travels from Thursday to Saturday.
- This News ticker for Annalena Baerbock’s trip abroad is continuously updated.
Update from July 29, 7:01 a.m.: First Athens, then Istanbul: This Friday, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock is visiting two NATO partners whose relationship has long been strained. Recently, tensions between Greece and Turkey have increased again. Baerbock is therefore facing a difficult double visit. At the moment there are three major issues between the two countries:
– Territory Claims: Ankara is challenging the sovereignty of Greek islands in the eastern Aegean, including Rhodes, Samos and Kos. At the same time, Turkey is demanding the withdrawal of the Greek military. The demand is emphasized with overflights of Turkish fighter jets over inhabited Greek islands. Greece, on the other hand, justifies the stationing of troops with the presence of numerous landing craft on Turkey’s west coast.
Baerbock in Greece and Turkey: three major issues
– natural gas: So far unresolved is a conflict over natural gas under the seabed. Cyprus is also involved in the said dispute. What could fuel the disagreements again: On August 9, Turkey wants to send another drilling ship to the Mediterranean.
– refugees: People still try to cross the Mediterranean from Turkey to Europe every day. According to the refugee agency UNHCR, since the beginning of the year around 6,250 people have successfully crossed the border in north-eastern Greece – or the crossing by boat from the Turkish west coast to the Greek islands. However, there were always boat accidents with dead people. Athens and Ankara blame each other for this state of affairs.
Update from July 28, 4:05 p.m.: Annalena Baerbock is still in Greece. But the probably trickier part of their trip is on Friday and Saturday (July 29/30) in Turkey. Details of the Foreign Minister’s plans have now become known in the country.
According to a report by the Turkish edition of the British broadcaster BBC, Baerbock will meet representatives of the opposition parties CHP, İYİ Parti and HDP. Baerbock will also visit a project on solidarity between women and an event with refugees. Violence against women is proving to be a major problem in Turkey. The large number of refugees is also a hot topic in the country.
Citing diplomatic sources, the BBC also reported that the Ukraine war would play a major role in Baerbock’s meeting with her Turkish counterpart Mevlut Çavuşoğlu. Germany is concerned about the close Russian-Turkish relations, it said, especially with regard to the possible circumvention of sanctions. The topic will most likely also be a Turkish plan for the military operation in Syria. In fact, Turkey has repeatedly threatened in recent weeks with a new offensive against the predominantly Kurdish YPG in northern Syria.
Just in time for the Baerbock trip, allegations against EU border protection in Greece
Update from July 28, 3:30 p.m.: Just in time for Annalena Baerbock’s visit to Greece, there are new allegations about how the EU is dealing with refugees in the Aegean: A secret EU report accuses the EU border protection agency Frontex of deliberately turning a blind eye when the Greek coast guard pushes refugees back at sea. He reports that mirror. In one case, a Frontex aircraft was specifically withdrawn from the Aegean “in order not to become a witness,” according to the report by the anti-fraud authority Olaf, from which the newspaper also read Le Monde quoted.
On 129 pages, the report documents “how the EU border protection agency Frontex was involved in the illegal machinations of the Greek coast guard,” he writes mirror. The border guards are therefore in the Aegean “systematically powerless asylum seekers from the sea – either in shaky boats or on inflatable life rafts”. Referring to the Olaf report, it is said that Frontex knew about Greek human rights violations early on and covered them up.
The EU Commission stressed that it had deployed 31 human rights monitors to prevent such incidents in the future. “We are also working closely with the Greek authorities,” said Commission spokeswoman Anitta Hipper on Thursday. The protection of the EU’s external border must be done with respect for human rights, she stressed. Baerbock had stressed before her departure: “The task that Greece is carrying for all of us here is huge and deserves all of our solidarity.”
Baerbock rebukes Erdogan even before the trip to Turkey: “Alliance partners do not threaten each other”
Update from July 28, 2:15 p.m.: In Greece and Turkey, Annalena Baerbock wants to defuse the Mediterranean conflict – in an interview with the Athener Zeitung Ta Nea the German Foreign Minister criticized Turkey in particular. “Members of a common defense alliance do not threaten each other, but accept and respect each other’s sovereignty,” she said, while at the same time praising the Greek government for its “signals of willingness to engage in dialogue”.
At the start of her visit to Greece, Baerbock commemorated the victims of the German occupation during World War II. The Greens politician visited the former prison of the Nazi headquarters, where thousands of resistance fighters and civilians were imprisoned and tortured between 1941 and 1944. She then laid flowers at the Athens Holocaust Memorial.
Baerbock had been in the conversation with Ta Nea but also made it clear that there would be no new talks about paying reparations for the suffering of the occupation in World War I. The new federal government “did not come to a new legal opinion”. The Greek government has never officially given up demanding reparations. The federal government has been arguing for years that there is no legal basis for such payments.
Baerbock travels to Turkey – and also warns Erdogan urgently: “Putin wants to split”
preliminary report: Athens/Ankara – Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) is still a long way from a summer break: Germany’s top diplomat is traveling to Greece and Turkey from Thursday to Saturday – and not only has to deal with the Ukraine war, but also with a partly the seemingly threatening conflict between the two NATO countries.
Even before the flight to Athens, Baerbock made the first urgent appeal: “Never has the cohesion between NATO allies and European partners been more important than in these times,” she said – and indicated that every dispute was also in the interest of Vladimir Putin’s lies: Russia is “not only planning to subjugate Ukraine as a self-determined country,” but is also trying by all means to “split our alliance.”
Baerbock visits Greece and Turkey: Foreign Minister wants to tackle the Mediterranean conflict
Relations between Greece and Turkey have been marked by great tension for decades: Competing territorial claims in the Aegean – including on the island of Cyprus – are causing disputes. Turkey had recently tightened the tone towards Greece to the point of war threats.
Security in the Mediterranean will be an “important topic of my talks in Istanbul and Ankara,” said Baerbock. “Our message is there too: problems must be resolved through talks, not through the escalation of tensions.”
Baerbock trip: Refugees and Nazi atrocities in Greece
But the Foreign Minister’s first stop is Athens. Baerbock wants to commemorate the atrocities of the German occupation in World War II there on Thursday afternoon. “Many Germans are very familiar with Greece as a holiday destination, but too few know the extent of the guilt that Germany shouldered there during the Second World War for the atrocities committed by the Nazi occupation,” she explained. “Keeping the memory of it alive is important to me – because it is the prerequisite for a good future together.”
Annalena Baerbock’s itinerary in Greece and Turkey:
Thursday, July 28: Arrive in Athens and visit a refugee camp
Friday, July 29: Talks with the Greek government, onward journey to Istanbul and talks with the Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu
Saturday, July 30th: Talks with representatives of the Turkish opposition in Ankara
A visit to a refugee camp near Athens and talks with representatives of the European border protection agency Frontex are also planned for Thursday – another source of conflict. Greece is the first stop on EU soil for many refugees destined for Europe. “The task that Greece is carrying for all of us here is huge and deserves all of our solidarity,” said Baerbock. The country was recently criticized for so-called “pushbacks” by refugees.
Erdogan’s government in focus: Baerbock wants to address sensitive issues in Istanbul
Talks with the Greek government are scheduled for Friday. On Friday afternoon, the minister will travel to Istanbul, where she is to meet Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu. She wants to speak to representatives of the Turkish opposition and civil society in Ankara on Saturday.
In Turkey, she will “also address the issues on which we sometimes have fundamental differences,” announced Baerbock. There has been no shortage of conflicts with the government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan in recent years. She cited “the military interventions in northern Syria, human rights, the implementation of commitments as a member of the Council of Europe” and added: “Here too we must ensure that our paths converge again.”
Baerbock emphasized that Turkey is a special partner because of the many people of Turkish descent in Germany. “That’s why it’s important to me that we don’t drift further and further apart politically,” she explained. Baerbock’s inaugural visits to Greece and Turkey were actually planned for early June. They had to be postponed because the minister had recently tested positive for the corona virus during a visit to Pakistan. According to Baerbock, it continues to suffer from the consequences of the infection. (AFP/fn)
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