“Whatever the government said on National Defence, it has done,” said Serres MP and Secretary of International Relations and EU of the New Democracy, Tassos Hadjivassiliou, speaking Wednesday morning on OPEN.

Referring to international developments, he noted that “the situation in Ukraine has taught us that the form of war has completely changed,” and went on to note that “the government and the Minister of Defence have quite rightly turned to smarter weapons. It is a responsible choice of the government to make the country a manufacturer of military hardware in the long run.”

Referring to the European defence mechanism SAFE, Hadjivassiliou explained that “it has to do with European funds, which through specific protocols open the way for funding to countries participating in the mechanism, to support their defence and the European defence industry”. He clarified that “the SAFE programme has nothing to do with possible bilateral agreements between Turkey and European or other countries for the direct purchase of defence equipment”, making it clear that Turkey is not part of SAFE.

Asked about the agreement between Britain and Turkey on the supply of Eurofighter fighter jets, Hajivassiliou recalled that “Ankara had started talks to buy 100 F-35s, then asked to buy new and upgrade old F-16s and now ended up asking for 44 Eurofighters, many of which will be second-hand.” As he added, the neighboring country “is practically making emergency solutions, which do not change the balance of power.”

And he explained that “the British are saving the program and together they are saving 20,000 jobs, while Turkey is trying to fill in the gaps.” At the same time, the Serres MP said that “in Turkey, as it seems today, only 50 F-16 aircraft are airworthy. Therefore, Ankara is in immediate need of strengthening its air force. However, the US door for F-35 remains closed; otherwise, Turkey would not have made this choice.”

He went on to stress that “Greece cannot be a supervisor in every bilateral economic agreement that a European country wants to make. But everyone is judged.” He added emphatically. I recall that the UK is a guarantor power in the Republic of Cyprus, along with Greece and Turkey. And it is currently giving Eurofighters to the country, which is illegally occupying the northern part of Cyprus and threatening Greece.”