“Fire” under Greek-Turkish relations due to Yilmaz statements!

MIT agents have not managed to set fires in Greek forests as great as those ignited by the statements of former Turkish premier, Mesut Yilmaz. Speaking to the Birgun newspaper, Yilmaz said that during the premiership of Tansu Ciller, between 1995 and 1997, Turkish agents started Greek forest fires!

Speaking of secret budgets at the time, Yilmaz said that, “all premiers, when their tenure is over and their successor comes along, have to inform them about how the secret budget was used. This is what I and my predecessors have done. Erbakan, Ecevit and Demirel all followed the same path, but Ciller did not. A certain state report speaks of the Greek arsons and the attempt towards a coup in Azerbaijan; nevertheless it mentions nothing relevant to Kurdish assassinations”, said Yilmaz.

During the time Yilmaz spoke about, a period in which most Eastern Aegean islands and Macedonian forests were in the eye of the firestorms, the Greek Secret Service also had information about possible arsons on the part of Turkey, but premiers Papandreou and Simitis had not managed to collect the necessary evidence.

What remains to be seen from now on is whether or to what degree these revelations will affect bilateral relations. Together with the FYROM name issue, it looks like the present or future Greek government will have a lot of “homework” to do, both at a local and international level.