Faced with the Greek economic crisis, Turkey has proposed Greece to cut the ”non-essential” defence expenditure of both countries.
The proposal was made by Turkey’s European Affairs Minister Egemen Bagis, in a press meeting today in Brussels. Bagis is convinced that the time has come to ”take a step” in this direction, considering the friendly relations between the current Defence Minister of Greece, Dimitris Avramopoulos and Turkish Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
”Greece and Turkey together spend more than the NATO bases,” said Bagis, ”and yet they are not enemies, but neighbours and allies inside NATO. We have a responsibility to defend ourselves against threats from the outside, but there is no reason to defend ourselves from each other. Greek and Turkish citizens need new schools, roads, hospitals and bridges, they don’t need airplanes or submarines.
Together we can cut our non-crucial defence expenditure,” Bagis explained. He added that ”the current Greek Defence Minister, Dimitris Avramopoulos, is a good friend of Turkey and of Prime Minister Erdogan: Avramopoulos was mayor of Athens when Erdogan was mayor of Istanbul, and they helped each other when they were hit by an earthquake.” So ”I am certain that we can discuss the matter,” Bagis concluded.
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