Karamanlis: “We Can’t Do Anything in the Aegean Without Turkey’s Permission”
Former Greek Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis drew a hard line on Sunday, saying Greece cannot accept any Turkish demand for notification or approval over the Greece-Cyprus subsea electricity cable, no matter what Ankara chooses to call it.
Speaking at the War Museum in Athens during an event by the Association of Retired Army Officers ahead of the October 28 OXI anniversary, Karamanlis was blunt: any request for permission from Turkey for the cable is unacceptable, whether it is framed as a notification, an announcement, or anything else. His warning went further. "After that, we will no longer be able to do anything in the Aegean without Turkey's permission. Not even the smallest infrastructure project between our islands," he said.
"No one respects someone who does not defend his rights, his principles, his homeland" — Karamanlis
Karamanlis also addressed the Libyan parliament's recent ratification of the Turkey-Libya maritime memorandum, calling it a negative development for Greek national interests. Even if the memorandum carries no legal effect, he argued it represents a calculated show of strength and an attempt by Ankara to establish facts on the ground.
He rejected the idea that these are isolated disputes. The casus belli, the memorandum, Aegean grey zones, island demilitarization demands, and Turkish marine parks form what Karamanlis described as Ankara's integrated plan to overturn the existing status quo in the Aegean, piece by piece.
The former prime minister also turned his criticism toward Greece's allies, accusing some of behaving as "opportunistic neutrals" who maintain equal distance between, in his words, perpetrator and victim. He argued that pushing Greece to stay quiet on Aegean and Cyprus issues to avoid irritating partners is the definition of subservience. "No one respects someone who does not defend his rights, his principles, his homeland," he said.
Drawing on the lessons of Greece's 1940 resistance, Karamanlis identified three pillars for national survival: leadership, preparation, and morale.
