Editorial: Solely for the sake of peace!

The multifaceted, Greece-France defence agreement - especially the provision regarding military assistance in the event of a hostile attack on our territory - has provoked a host of reactions and disputes domestically and abroad.

Our aggressive neighbour Turkey was alarmed and that is reflected in the statements of top officials. Certain Europeans expressed reservations because they believe that it transcends previous mores and introduces new ones. The Americans wondered as they saw that in the new world there are alternative possible alliances for nations that are threatened. Domestically, the diachronic lack of comprehension of conditions and the absence of a national understanding was revealed.

The common consensus is that Greece for years has been confronted with Ankara's aggressiveness. It is the only country in Europe that formally faces a threat of war, as Turkey's casus belli demonstrates, and it has been subjected to continual military pressure through constant violations of its airspace and territorial waters, beginning with the 1974 invasion of Cyprus and continuing to this day. Moreover, Turkey maintains its "Aegean Army" with an enormous number of landing craft on the coast of Asia Minor, directly adjacent to the Greek islands

Turkey's demands are perpetual and its disputing of our national sovereignty is permanent. Moreover, the officially articulated dogma of the "Blue Motherland", the many attempts to expand Turkish maritime zones, and the recent linking of Greek sovereignty over our islands with their demilitarisation, confirm Ankara's revisionist stance and its goal of overturning fundamental treaties, such as the 1923 Lausanne Treaty.

All of these factors confirm the existence of the Turkish threat and the need to...