"Greece has every good intention towards its neighboring country (Turkey) and all its neighboring countries," President Kostis Stephanopoulos said yesterday on the island of Samos, which he visited as part of his tour of the border islands of the Northeast Aegean.
"We live in an era where differences are resolved by means of international rules, and if the provisions of these rules are enacted then there will be no problems left between the countries," Mr. Stephanopoulos said.
"I hope that Turkey will soon realize that this is the only way to solve differences. Until then, Greece's intentions remain completely peaceful."
Mr. Stephanopoulos arrived on the island yesterday morning and was speaking during a visit to an army post on the island, which faces the Turkish coast. Today, Mr. Stephanopoulos will visit Hios.
Cyprus has briefed Athens on Wednesday's violation of its airspace by Turkish military planes, government spokesman Evangelos Venizelos said yesterday.
"The Greek government was, in fact, informed immediately by the Cyprus government of this flight by Turkish military aircraft over the territory of the Republic of Cyprus, in violation of all relevant regulations," Mr. Venizelos said.
"It is a provocative action, a violation of the sovereignty of the Republic of Cyprus which is taking on particular dimensions precisely because it is undertaken by the same power responsible for the continuing military occupation of a significant part of the Cypriot state," he said.
Two Turkish RF-104 reconnaissance aircraft, which are specially equipped to take aerial photographs, violated Cyprus' airspace Wednesday morning for approximately 40 minutes along the island's coastlines and south of the British sovereign bases, Cyprus government spokesman Yiannakis Cassoulides announced on Thursday.
He said Cyprus would protest to the UN Security Council. Mr. Venizelos said the Cyprus government would inform international organizations of the violations.
Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou and ruling PASOK's Central Committee Secretary, Akis Tsohatzopoulos, met yesterday to discuss the party's course in the following two years of its mandate.
After the two-and-a-half-hour meeting, Mr. Tsohatzopoulos told reporters that the ruling party would launch a social dialogue with trade unions and industry associations as well as state bodies responsible for the implementation of social policy and the quality of life.
"Our aim is (to launch) a new, collective effort which will guarantee the success, the rationale and the effective solution of the problems," he said.
He said Cabinet members will also participate in the effort. "We promote a unified policy to solve (existing) problems," he added.
Replying to press questions over the likelihood of a Cabinet reshuffle, Mr. Tsohatzopoulos said this was the responsibility of the prime minister.
Asked whether he will remain in his position, the secretary said: "(If I don't stay in my position) how else (will all the measures which I have announced) be implemented?"
Interior Minister Costas Skandalides yesterday said that the PASOK administration would serve out its full term in office and that it was capable of altering the unfavorable image created by internal party strife. The minister was addressing an audience of young PASOK supporters in Argolida.
"There are ways (which we can) alter the bad climate (which has been formed in relation to the party's public image)," Mr. Skandalides said. "Such ways are a cabinet reshuffle as well as the promotion of the (PASOK) administration's achievements."
Mr. Skandalides also lashed out against the main opposition New Democracy party, saying it was not on the road to modernization and that had still yet to find a proper definition for the term "opposition".
"It is unfortunate for us, that there is no serious main opposition," the minister said, adding that "(ND leader Miltiades) Evert faces a real problem, since his (position) is also questioned by his own party."
The minister said that his own party doubted Mr. Evert. Earlier in the week, Mr. Evert's call for early elections was dismissed by Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou, who said Mr. Evert would have to "wait.
Leader of the main opposition party, Miltiades Evert late Thursday launched a fresh attack on the government and the prime minister, when, during a dinner on the island of Zakynthos, he made an indirect call to PASOK officials to overthrow their leader.
"The prime minister seems to be caught by surprise way too often, in Cannes for instance, and recently with the closure of the shipyards," he said. Mr. Evert warned Mr. Papandreou that one day he will "surprisingly" find himself to have lost his seat.
"This is the duty of the PASOK officials, if they really care for this country," he said, adding that his party was ready to assume office.
Responding to PASOK party officials' criticism that the main opposition is responsible for the recent wave of closures of industrial units, Mr. Evert said: "Are they blind? Don't they see reality? I do not wish to bear bad news but in autumn we will witness an unstoppable closure of big units. (This is due to the fact that) the government does not realize the focal problem of the economy, which is the need for modernization."
Press Under-secretary Telemahos Hytiris said yesterday that Mr. Evert was "not speaking, but ranting and misbehaving".
US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Holbrooke might include Athens in the visit to Europe and the Balkans he will start in Paris tomorrow. Mr. Holbrooke made the statement himself after a special press briefing at the State Department.
He said he had planned to visit Crete to meet Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou during his previous trip. However, due to the death of three senior US officials in Bosnia, it was postponed.
Final details are being ironed out to enable him to visit Athens during his trip since he wishes to hold personal talks with Mr. Papandreou.
Foreign Under-secretary for Overseas Greeks Grigoris Niotis will visit Greek communities in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan between September 1-4, it was announced yesterday.
The visit is part of a tour of Greek communities in the countries of the former Soviet Union, which is to be completed in November. He has already visited Russia, the Ukraine, Georgia and Armenia.
According to his programme, Mr. Niotis will be in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, September 1-2, and will then go on to the Kazakhstan capital of Almaty (formerly Alma Ata), where he will attend a central Asian athletics tournament.
Mr. Niotis will meet with his counterparts in countries as well as representatives of the Greek communities there.
Albanian Foreign Minister Alfred Serreqi is due to arrive in Greece next week for a two-day visit focusing on consolidating ties between the two Balkan countries, an Albanian official told Reuters yesterday.
"(Mr.) Serreqi will discuss bilateral problems with his counterpart Karolos Papoulias and the highest Greek authorities from August 31 to September 1," Albanian foreign ministry official Xhyher Cani said.
"This visit is very important to strengthen our already good relations," he added. Mr. Cani said the talks would also cover regional issues, including the conflict in former Yugoslavia.
Foreign Minister Karolos Papoulias will meet with his Bulgarian and Romanian counterparts, Georgui Pirinski and Teodor Melescanu, in the northern Greek town of Ioannina today to discuss the development of trans-Balkan road axes.
The meeting, convened at Mr. Papoulias' initiative, will also provide an opportunity for Bulgaria and Romania to reach agreement on the location of a bridge to be constructed over the Danube which will facilitate the transport of goods to and from central Europe.
The construction of two major road axes, the one linking Thessaloniki-Sofia-Budapest-Berlin and the other Alexandroupolis- Plovdiv-Bucharest-Kiev-St.Petersburg-Helsinki, have attracted the interest of banks, Greek businessmen and heads of state corporations, who will have separate meetings with the three ministers in Ioannina.
The two highways would turn the ports of Thessaloniki and Alexandroupolis into natural gateways to central and eastern Europe while contributing to political stability and economic development in the Balkans.
Coalition of the Left and Progress leader Nikos Constantopoulos called for a reorientation of foreign policy on the occasion of the tripartite meeting in Ioannina between the foreign ministers of Greece, Bulgaria and Romania.
Mr. Constantopoulos, currently on the island of Zakynthos, said the three countries could do a great deal together for pacification in the Balkans and their wider economic and political co-operation. He also reiterated his proposal for the creation of a foreign policy council.
In response to questions regarding the preliminary investigation ordered by the Athens prosecutor Thursday into allegations that members of the prime minister's entourage have been staying free of charge at the state-run Hotel Xenia, at Lagonissi, south of Athens, and that swimming pools under construction there are illegal, government spokesman Evangelos Venizelos yesterday referred reporters to the prosecuting authority itself. "Ask the prosecutor," he said.
A statement yesterday by the hotel's 'General Tourist Enterprises' company, owned by the National Tourism Organization of Greece, said that current construction of suites, bungalows, and individual swimming pools at the hotel aimed at enhancing its competitiveness, and that it was customary for certain long-standing customers, as well as journalists and important political figures, to receive a 15 per cent discount.
Government spokesman Evangelos Venizelos yesterday described a host of sweeping changes proposed by Minister to the Prime Minister's Office Ioannis Pottakis on the reorganization of the civil service as a "draft bill for discussion (in parliament)".
Mr. Pottakis, on Thursday, said the draft bill was nearing completion and would be published after account was taken of comments and observations by all related government agencies and administrative bodies.
His statement was a follow up to an announcement at the beginning of the month that the government was studying incentives for early retirement of civil servants, aimed at improving speed, quality, efficiency, and cost effectiveness in public administration.
In the meantime, the Civil Servants Supreme Administrative Council (ADEDY), which has been studying the document, Thursday reiterated its strong opposition to the government's plan, saying that it lacked a central modernizing and democratizing orientation which could secure a broader consensus in the civil service.
Replying to a press question yesterday, Mr. Venizelos said the minister did not have to wait for the establishment of an inter-party committee overseeing public administration issues before coming up with the proposals.
"Inter-party committees may have a very serious political character but that doesn't mean that the government is giving up its right to fulfill its responsibilities," Mr. Venizelos said. He said the inter-party committees aimed at projecting the image of shared responsibility by political parties.
On Thursday, the Parliament voted in favor of the draft bill providing for the establishment of three national inter-party committees to oversee foreign policy, education and public administration issues. All the opposition parties voted against the draft bill and it is not yet clear whether any opposition deputies will participate in the committees.
Greece, along with Poland, Italy, Korea, and Australia, has adopted a national 'Clean Up Day', as part of the Clean Up the World Campaign, in which as many as 40 million people in over 100 countries are expected to participate in a blitz on garbage, between September 15-17.
The campaign is the third such annual community driven event, organized by Clean Up the World organization, based in Australia, in conjunction with the United Nations Environment Programme, sponsored by KPMG and Citibank, and supported by Qantas and the Australian government.
In the spirit of this community-based movement, participating countries activities' vary from local site clean-ups, to creating environmental awareness, to tackling broader and more long-term environmental issues in these countries.
Cyprus is among the newcomers to the programme, joining long-term participants such as Philippines, Indonesia, Italy, Fiji, Honduras, Sri Lanka, and Canada.
An 11-man Greek salvage team has found the wreck of the British World War I steamer "Brittanic", sunk by German submarines off the coast of Attica.
According to an exclusive by the Greek TV station Antenna, the team, which has been searching for the wreckage for the past two years, found the wreck in the open seas off the island of Kea, east of Attica.
The "Brittanic", a sister ship of the equally unlucky Titanic, was torpedoed by German submarines on November 21, 1916, as it was ferrying wounded from the battlefields. Fifty-six people aboard went down with the ship.
Attempts to locate the wreck began afresh in 1976, when famed explorer Jacques Cousteau collaborated with Greek divers and salvage experts to find the exact location. The team is expected to take underwater footage of the wreck in the coming days.
Government spokesman Evangelos Venizelos said yesterday that democratic governments should be tough with those who attempted to overthrow it, while commenting on calls to release imprisoned junta leaders.
The ringleaders of the dictatorship which ruled Greece from 1967 to 1974 have been in prison since 1975 and have recently expressed the hope that they would be released on the 20th anniversary of their imprisonment.
Mr. Venizelos said the government did not involve itself in these issues, adding that procedures existed which were known to the interested parties.