Mitsotakis from Nicosia: Ukraine now experiencing what Cyprus faced in 1974

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, speaking from Cyprus on Friday, returned a very small portion of the opprobrium directed at him and the Greek government this month by an increasingly confrontational and embattled Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

“The Russian invasion threatens to establish a model of authoritarian behavior, by which every imperialistic country, every regional trouble-maker, under any pretext, can invade a neighboring country. This is a model that can be imitated by other leaders with imperial and expansionist visions, something that affects Greece … but something that affects Cyprus even more so, as it has been divided for decades,” Mitsotakis said during an address to delegates at a congress of the Democratic Rally (DYSI) party on the island republic.

Fresh from a new around of saber-rattling, personal insults and revisionist rhetoric by the Erdogan regime, Mitsotakis warned that Ukraine is now experiencing what Cyprus faced in 1974, while adding that a “two-state” solution, being promoted of late by Ankara, is rejected outright.

In directly referring to a parameter that has thrust the east Mediterranean onto the international energy limelight, Mitsotakis said the Cyprus issue has again become a priority – an indirect reference to natural gas deposits found in Cypriot and Israeli waters, and efforts to find a way to ship the quantities to Europe.

At the same time, in again pointing to Turkish aggressiveness and provocations in the wider region, he said “…we won’t open a dialogue with the irrational (position); we’re ready to discuss a new environment of security but with respect to international law and respect to the rules of good-neighborliness.”