PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis targeted Ankara for the frenzy of provocations against Greece from Komotini where he delivered a speech on Friday. The prime minister also took aim at Turkish President Recep Erdogan personally, saying in his speech that “those who shout that they will come overnight will have a harsh reality check”.

Mitsotakis stated that the national borders will remain guarded and that the defensive fence will soon be extended to the entire Evros border. At the same time, he also referred to the national elections that will be held in 2023, expressing his certainty of the victory for the ND party.

“It is the course of growth and progress that we have charted for 3.5 years. We will all continue, together, in the same vain to build a Greece that will march forward and always aim high. Our first government term is coming to an end soon. With the vote of the Greek people, the second term of creation opens. We achieved a lot. But we can still with an even stronger mandate to continue with the same and even faster firm and bold steps. Mainly with the same reliability that inextricably unites us with our society that constantly refutes our opponents. They told us that we would not exhaust the four-year period, and here we are completing it.”

“They told us that you would change the electoral law, we kept it as it is. Some bet that the many crises would bend us. And yet we all overcame them together. They were the same ones who predicted that we would not implement our commitments which became reality in their entirety,” said Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis at a New Democracy event at the Komotini Concert Hall.

The defensive fence will soon be extended to the entire Evros border

“I am here with you to talk about this new Greece. I chose eastern Macedonia and Thrace for my first campaign tour of the new year. Here, Konstantinos Mitsotakis was the first to establish in practice isonomy with isopolity. Here, this arid region has always stood on the front line for the defence of the motherland. Here we have achieved harmonious coexistence of Greek citizens of different religions. The citizen refuses to become a helpless pawn on the chessboard of discord as some outside the borders seek. On the weekend of Clean Monday in 2020 when the massive attempt to instrumentalise people took place, you held our borders impregnable. That experience was also a parallel message to those who opposed the defensive fence that will soon be extended along the Evros border. They are the same people who once did not distinguish maritime borders and did not hesitate to slander their own country even with false accusations about allegedly dead children. I wonder how we would be today if they handled such a hybrid attack and if today they insisted on open borders with immigrants coming and then disappearing as their minister in charge said at the time.”

“The government of Turkey is, unfortunately, going on a tirade of provocations poisoning mainly its own citizens. It is sinking into international isolation. No one can rewrite history. We oppose aggression with vigilance, loyal to international law, the law of the sea, and the Lausanne Treaty. We keep our doors closed to threats but always open to fruitful contacts. We are a force of peace, responsibility, and law. We are always ready to have a dialogue with Turkey, but there is no dialogue with the absurd. Those who shout that they will come overnight will have a harsh reality check. Our national and European borders will remain protected. To send a greeting to the southwestern tip of the country, where Greece utilises its natural energy wealth for the first time. A strong Greece means a strong Thrace and a strong Thrace means a strong Greece”, the prime minister said.