FM Gerapetritis: Crete-Cyprus electricity cable project will continue as planned

The Italian ship researching the sea around Kassos island this past summer for the laying of an electricity cable continued its research at Kassos normally following the descalation of tension with Turkish Navy ships, Greek Foreign Affairs Minister George Gerapetritis said in Parliament on Monday over the incident.

Gerapetritis was responding to a question by Independent Deputy Michalis Chourdakis "on provocative Turkish statements over the Aegean, in view of the Kassos incident."

Speaking of the electricity connection between Crete and Cyprus, and further with Israel, Gerapetritis said that he has repeated several times that the project is one of "mutual interest for the European Union, and is therefore partly funded by the EU, and has been highlighted as a major project by the European Commission." In this context, the Greek government is the one to provide the permissions for research and laying of cables.

The Italian ship was within Greek territorial waters, the minister said, exited them "into an area already delimited by the Greek-Egyptian agreement," and acknowledged "there was truly an obstruction by Turkish ships." But tension was resolved and the Italian ship "continued its research as usual after the tension was deescalated and completed its research activity fully, according to schedule."

Communications channels with Türkiye

Asked to comment on how tension was deescalated, Gerapetritis said that this happened "through open communication channels kept with the neighboring country," and that there was no permission requested from or granted by the Turkish side.

Referring to the Athens Declaration, Gerapetritis said that "it truly is a highly symbolic text, because it is the first time the will of both sides is stated to jointly move forward in the framework of good neigbhorly relations and amicable setlement, in order to prevent crises."

The channels of communication between Greece and Türkiye have worked over the last 16 months so that the two neighbors can avoid crises and move on to a series of activities and sectors, he said, underlining that "we are not going to discuss issues of sovereignty, issues that Türkiye believes are related to the delimitation."

MP Chourdakis' questions related as to whether there was any trend of bilateral relations progressing. He supported the policy of keeping communications channels open even with enemies, and wondered why the same could not be done with Russia, among other issues he mentioned.