Editorial: The Russian lobby in Greece

Greece from the very beginning condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

This was not only for humanitarian reasons, but because at its core the invasion incorporates the quintessential outlook of contemporary authoritarian revisionism, and it violates fundamental principles of the post WWII world, including the inviolability of borders.

Vladimir Putin never hid the fact that with his until now failed "special operation" he sought to do away with post-war history. He wanted to take away the freedom, independence, and autonomy of Ukraine, to annex lands that he believed belong to "Mother Russia", and to install a government of his choosing in what is, according to imperial Russian dogma, a neighbouring "sister Slavic" country.

Thus, he declared an unjust and horrendous war, relying on brute force and the supposed superiority of his military and arsenal.

Greece could never reconcile itself with such bellicose practices and actions, as it is confronted with a hostile neighbour, Turkey, which espouses a comparable revisionist dogma.

Ankara propagates the abolition of fundamental international agreements and treaties. It constantly violates Greek airspace, creates incidents in the Evros border region, has occupied the Republic of Cyprus for nearly half a century, and claims the lion's share of the hydrocarbons in the Southeastern Mediterranean.

Through all these actions and claims, Turkey dreams of reviving the Ottoman Empire with the expansionist construct of the "Blue Motherland" [which claims as its own large swathes of Greece's maritime Exclusive Economic Zone].

For all these reasons, and because freedom and independence lie at the core of our country's fundamental principles, it would have been impossible and...