News From Greece
April 4 2009

Obama and Karamanlis unraveling Cyprus and Macedonia

ВаÑ?а: 04 April 2009 :: 18:01:58

The US president Barack Obama and the Greek Prime Minister Kostas
Karamanlis will meet at 01:30pm Greek time today in Strasburg, where
both politicians are participating in the NATO high level meeting. The
news about the first meeting between Obama and Karamanlis was arranged
10 days ago and it was officially confirmed by the office of the Greek
president.

The Greek government confirmed that agreed topics of discussion will
be the global financial crisis, the Greek-Turkish relations, and the
argument about Macedonia’s name. As the US president had numerously
stated, he had been supporting the Greek point of view regarding the
name of the Republic of Macedonia when he was a senator and when he
was a president candidate. Regarding Turkey, Prime Minister Karamanlis
once again will point out the Turkish military provocations in the
Aegean Sea, he will insist on adhering to the rights of the Ecumenical
Patriarchy in Istanbul, and he will insist on the need to withdraw the
Turkish army from North Cyprus as a condition before uniting the
island.

Obama’s answers on those topics are awaited with interest. As a
senator, Barack Obama signed a resolution, which insisted that Turkey
should accept the Armenian genocide. As a president of the USA, Obama
realized the key role, which Turkey could play in protecting the US
interest in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and in the Muslim world as a
whole. It is not an accident that he will spend two days out of his
European trip in Ankara and Istanbul. This is a fact, which is
irritating Greece, because it is violating the unwritten tradition of
US presidents visiting Turkey and Greece during the same trip.

On the other hand, the US is expected to ask for a bigger Greek
participation in the Afghanistan. A request, which probably would not
be taken into consideration, because the Greek unwillingness to
interfere in military actions worldwide is well known. Greece is
participating in Afghanistan with a group of military doctors and it
is not likely that it will send troop there. Another request from the
American side will be to increase Greece’s role in fighting against
the traffic with mass destruction weapons and concluding deals for
armament with US weapons.

It is expected that during the meeting Barack Obama will invite Kostas
Karamanlis to visit the White House. Though, political analyzers
believe that this visit will not take place before the European
parliament elections in June, because Washington does not want to be
accused of trying to influence the vote results.

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