International Media Newsletter, 12-Nov-2009

The Greek PM met the UN Secretary-General and addressed a forum on migration in Athens. In the light of the Turkish Prime Minister’s letter requesting a meeting, Mr Papandreou and the Alternate Foreign Minister clarified Greece’s position on Turkish accession to the EU and on Cyprus. Then Mr Papandreou flew to Germany for ceremonies marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

1) Greek PM Meets UN Secretary-General, Discusses Migration
Mr Papandreou welcomed UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to Greece on November 4th. Both men were attending the 3rd Global Forum on Migration and Development in Athens.

Thanking Mr Ban for his championing of the issue, Mr Papandreou said that economic migration was of great significance to Greeks, as every family had at least one member who lived and worked abroad – as he himself had done. However, it was wrong to see migration purely as a problem of the contemporary world. People had always moved about the globe, and such movement played a major role in global development. However, there were also drawbacks, such as racism, people trafficking, and exploitation, particularly of women and children.

Development and migration went hand in hand: in countries that took in migrants, shortfalls in the work force were made up and the demographic profile was improved, leading to more efficient and competitive economies. In the past, Greece was a country of migrants, supported by citizens who had done well abroad. But in the last twenty years it had become a country that was attractive to foreign migrants, and had benefited from their labour, not least in preparation for the Olympic Games of 2004.

The Greek government was now looking at ways of improving the lot of migrants – legalizing their status and giving them access to basic services such as health and education, as well as offering Greek citizenship to the children of long-term migrants. Conversely the country’s borders would be patrolled more effectively and illegal migrants returned to their homelands, in line with EU law, while firm action would be taken against people traffickers. Migration was also linked to climate change – the economic consequences being that millions of people were being forced to leave their homelands because of environmental degradation. In general, migrants should be treated more compassionately and according to democratic principles.

2) Developments in Greek-Turkish Relations
Following Mr Papandreou’s visit to Turkey shortly after becoming prime minister – a move applauded by many in the Greek and international media – there have been developments in Greek-Turkish relations. When he was foreign minister between 1999 and 2004, Mr Papandreou established a close working relationship with his Turkish counterpart Ismail Cem, whose grave he visited on the recent trip. During the visit, the prime minister emphasised three points that Greece would play a leading role in the accession of all Balkan countries to the EU; that Greece would work to improve relations with Turkey, thus increasing stability in the region; and that Greece was fully behind the Ecumenical Patriarchate of the Orthodox Church.

On October 30th Turkish Prime Minster Recep Tayyip Erdogan sent his Greek counterpart a letter stating that Turkey was ready to discuss ‘bilateral problems’ and proposing the establishment of a high-level cooperation convention, in which both prime ministers would participate, along with relevant ministers. An official Greek response is being formulated.

In the meantime, Mr Papandreou, who also holds the foreign affairs portfolio, welcomed Turkish Minister of State and chief EU negotiator Egemen Bagis to Athens on November 5th. Alternate Foreign Minister Dimitris Droutsas then hosted a working lunch with Mr Bagis. The Turkish minister later said he was optimistic that Greek-Turkish relations would improve. According to Mr Bagis, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan would visit Athens shortly (date as yet unspecified), preceded by a preparatory visit by Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglou in early December. However, Mr Droutsas later said that no visits had yet been arranged.

Before a meeting with Austrian President Heinz Fischer in Vienna on November 6th, Alternate Foreign Minister Droutsas said that Greece was determined to maintain a direct channel of communication between Prime Ministers Papandreou and Erdogan. Greece fully supported Turkey’s European aspirations, but insisted that all conditions and obligations undertaken by Turkey vis-à-vis the EU and its member states had to be met. This included a solution to the Cyprus problem.

3) Berlin Visit
The Greek PM attended the events marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9th. He had a cordial half-hour meeting with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, during which he outlined his government’s attempts to  improve Greek-Turkish relations, as well as his support for Balkan countries joining  the EU, and Greece’s position on the FYROM name (which must be composite with a  geographical determinant). He also said that Turkey’s accession to the EU should be linked to a solution to the Cyprus issue.

Mr Papandreou made a statement on the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, saying it had been a historic day, when the people of Germany and of Europe as a whole demanded an end to the wall so that freedom and democracy could prevail.

Any wall that prevented citizens from playing a full part in the democratic process should be demolished. Every Greek and every European should now call for the continent’s last remaining wall – the one dividing Cyprus – to come down: there was no place in today’s Europe for such a wall and no place for the Turkish army of occupation.

4) Open Democracy link

Influential academics Anthony Barnett and Mary Kaldor write about Greece’s prospects in an article entitled ‘Can Greece Lead the Way?’