Steinmeier from Thessaloniki: “All recent European crises have directly affected Greece – in Germany they have not understood this yet”

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who is also running as Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) candidate for German President, began a two-day official visit to Greece today Sunday. The timing of the visit, which comes soon after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made statements seeming to question the 1923 Lausanne Treaty establishing the Greek and Turkish borders in the Aegean, as well as the implementation EU-Turkey agreement on migration and developments in the Cyprus talks, is seen as particularly important. In an interview with the Greek newspaper “Kathimerini on Sunday,” Steinmeier made clear that the Lausanne Treaty was “indisputable” and that “the issue is clear from the point of view of international law and no one can dispute this.” He also expressed conviction that “it is in Turkey’s interests to continue implementing the agreement on the refugee crisis.” The German foreign minister said Greece’s European partners have made it clear that Greece “is not being abandoned to its fate” and urged all sides in the Cyprus issue to demonstrate a “constructive attitude” so that the Cypriots can see their country reunited, as Germany was in the past.

During his visit to Thessaloniki, Steinmeier joined Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias for the official opening of the “Divided Memories 1940-1950” exhibition at the Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art, organised in collaboration with the Goethe-Institut Thessaloniki, the Jewish Museum of Thessaloniki and the Deutsches Historisches Museum in Berlin.

No European crisis in recent years has left Greece untouched, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said in Thessaloniki, while inaugurating the exhibition “Divided Memories 1940-1950” at the Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art with his Greek counterpart Nikos Kotzias. “The threats gather here in your country. There is no European crisis in recent years that has not directly affected Greece. In my country, it often seems to me, they have not understood this yet,” he said. Among such threats, Steinmeier listed the financial crisis, the refugee crisis and the EU’s relations with Turkey, while he criticised the “carelessness” of some German opinions concerning Greece, especially those talking about a Greek exit from the common currency or Schengen zone.

“On the contrary, I would hope that other European partners supported the European enterprise as steadfastly as you do here in Greece,” he noted.
German considers Greece a necessary and undisputed partner, Steinmeier emphasised: “In Greece I see a partner that is prepared to take on responsibility. A specific and very timely example is the solution of the Cyprus issue. There appears to be an opportunity here for historic progress. Greece is, in our eyes, in Germany’s eyes, a necessary and undisputed partner in Europe and for Europe,” he said.

Kotzias, also referring to the Cyprus issue, underlined that Athens was not prepared to accept either occupation forces or guarantors in a European country. “We do not want any country in Europe to have occupation forces or some third parties outside of Europe to guarantee anyone’s rights,” he said at the exhibition opening. Kotzias said his talks with Steinmeier in Athens will focus on approving a common action plan for friendship between Greece and Germany. “We say we want a country that is open to everyone, with all cultures open. We deeply believe in the rule of law. We are a stable force that believes in this enterprise that is called the European Union, which is a system of law. We are those that hope, along with our German friends, that this enterprise will progress and we will make every effort, even in the most difficult times, to keep open the road for a Europe that is socially just, democratic and a factor for peace and security in the world. A strong force in the 21st century,” he said.
In order to achieve this, he added, Europe needed a creative and productive relationship with the arts and history, which “should be our school for tomorrow and not our prison for all our lives.”

After the exhibition opening, the two ministers will return to Athens where Kotzias will host a dinner for his German counterpart at the Acropolis Museum, before the latter is received by President of the Hellenic Republic Prokopis Pavlopoulos at 17:30. They will then have a meeting at the foreign ministry at 18:30, followed by statements to the press at 19:15. Kotzias and Steinmeier, who were fellow students in Germany, have a long relationship of friendship that was recently rekindled when they met again as heads of the foreign ministries in their respective countries. Steinmeier is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Monday morning at 10:00 and the leader of main opposition New Democracy Kyriakos Mitsotakis at 13:15.