ATHENS – Opposition PASOK-KINAL leader Nikos Androulakis highlighted Turkey’s revisionist attitude at a meeting of the Socialists and Democrats in Brussels attended by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, while criticising NATO’s policy of “equal distances” with respect to Turkish provocations.

“If we allow autocratic, revisionist leaders to violate international law then we are being led to catastrophic and irreversible situations, as you said in your speech. On this we agree absolutely,” Androulakis said during the meeting on Tuesday, addressing Stoltenberg.

Noting that the European socialists have adopted a clear position toward Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine and supported the Ukrainian people, he also pointed out that Turkey was one country in the NATO alliance which had not imposed sanctions on Russia and had adopted an ambivalent stance.

“…in fact, its president mimics Putin’s revisionism and authoritarianism. Every day we have a harsh statement of a warlike nature targeting Greece,” Androulakis added, pointing to Erdogan’s frequent criticism of the Treaty of Lausanne, which even reached the point of openly disputing Greece’s national sovereignty. He also pointed to Turkish actions that flouted UN Security Council resolutions, such as its recent illegal activities in Varosha, or the undermining of the rule of law within Turkey, even as its leader posed as a champion of human rights at the UN.

“I am surprised that you do not see the elephant in the room! Your statements often sound in the ears of the Greek people like the statements of Pontius Pilate,” Androulakis said to Stoltenberg, adding that Greece has not seen the active solidarity and initiatives that escalating Turkish provocations warrant.