ATHENS – Newly-appointed Alternate Defense Minister Fotis Kouvelis, who has no experience in the field, said ongoing violations of Greek airspace and waters by Turkish fighter jets and warships, which indirectly led to the death of a Greek pilot, means the two countries are already in a conflict.
“We’re essentially in an undeclared war, in the sense that (airspace) violations and overflights (of Greek islands) by Turkish planes are practically a daily occurrence, with the result being Greek planes – and ships in the Aegean – obliged to make interceptions,” he told a radio program on the state-run broadcaster.
Kouvelis is leader of the marginal Democratic Left (DIMAR) that was folded into the new center-left Movement for Change, which is an opposition party to the government he serves, the ruling Radical Left SYRIZA-led coalition of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.
He is under Defense Minister Panos Kammenos, leader of the pro-austerity, marginal, jingoistic Independent Greeks (ANEL) who are ideological rivals of SYRIZA but who joined the government to come into power, but falling to less than 1 percent in polls after doing so.
The low-key Kouvelis was named to the post in what analysts said was a bid to counter the bombastic Kammenos but his statement about the undeclared war set off new jitters just as three college students were said to have planted a Greek flag on an islet near Turkey, raising ire from that country’s Prime Minister Binali Yildirim.
Kouvelis’ party had been in a previous coalition government led by the New Democracy Conservatives and including the now defunct PASOK Socialists who fell out of favor after agreeing to more austerity measures, which has brought Tsipras’ popularity plummeting for also doing so after saying he wouldn’t.
Kouvelis also again mentioned the two Greek soldiers being held in Turkey and facing trial after saying they accidentally crossed the border during a storm and who Kammenos said are hostages and bargaining chips for Turkey’s demand to return eight Turkish soldiers seeking asylum after fleeing a failed July, 2016 coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Erdogan wants Tsipras, who opposes asylum for the Turkish soldiers to ignore court rulings barring their extradition but said he can’t interfere with his country’s justice system to force the release of the Greek soldiers.
The Turkish soldiers, who said they didn’t take part in the overthrow attempt, are due to be released from a maximum 18-month pre-trial detention in May.
