{"id":6623,"date":"2026-05-20T20:48:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T17:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/?p=6623"},"modified":"2026-05-20T20:48:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T17:48:00","slug":"nikos-dendias-new-message-on-greek-turkish-relations-tough-statements-on-the-ukrainian-drone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/?p=6623","title":{"rendered":"Nikos Dendias: new message on Greek-Turkish relations &#8211; tough statements on the Ukrainian drone"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Tough <b>statements by the Minister of National Defence<\/b> on the <b>Ukrainian drone and a new message on German-Turkish<\/b> with spikes on <b>security <\/b>and <b>&#8220;calm waters&#8221; in the Mediterranean<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p>In a <b>highly charged geopolitical and defense environment<\/b>, the latest <b>positions of the Defense Minister Nikos Dendias<\/b> at the <b>Athens Defence Summit<\/b> bring <b>critical security issues in the Eastern Mediterranean<\/b> back <b>to the forefront<\/b>, from <b>addressing asymmetric threats to the balance in Greek-Turkish relations<\/b>. On the occasion of an incident <b>with the Ukrainian maritime drone and operational reports<\/b> around the <b>development of anti-aircraft systems<\/b>, the public <b>discussion<\/b> is reviving around <b>the readiness of Greek armed forces<\/b>, while at the same time <b>political references to the country&#8217;s internal stability and strategic direction<\/b> add <b>another level of tension to the already volatile scene<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p>In this <b>context<\/b>, the debate <b>shifts from a fixed focus on Greek-Turkish balances<\/b> to a more complex <b>security<\/b> matrix<\/b>, where the recent <b>findings on the alleged &#8220;Ukrainian drone&#8221; incident in Lefkada<\/b> take on <b>particular weight<\/b>. Linking <b>operational assessments to broader regional threats highlights<\/b> that defence <b>analysis<\/b> is no longer limited <b>to a bilateral geopolitical domain<\/b>, but extends to <b>hybrid forms of threats affecting security in the Aegean<\/b> and <b>Eastern Mediterranean<\/b>, reinforcing <b>public concern around preparedness and deterrence<\/b>.<\/p>\n<h3>Something extremely dangerous<\/h3>\n<p>The finding on the Ukrainian drone found full of explosives in a sea cave in Lefkada was mentioned among other things by Nikos Dendias, speaking at the Athens Defence Summit (ADS), the opening of which he announced earlier.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m not going to talk about the finding, it&#8217;s something extremely dangerous, it&#8217;s a Ukrainian sea drone &#8211; Ukraine should apologize &#8211; if it had hit a cruise ship it would have gone to the bottom of the sea,&#8221; the Defence Minister said. <\/p>\n<h3>&#8220;We will ask for a self-reliant government&#8221;<br \/><\/h3>\n<p>Dendias also referred to the polls on the political scene that predict coalition governments, stressing that the goal of New Democracy is to form a self-reliant government.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We will ask for a self-reliant government, but this depends on the Greek people,&#8221; the Defence Minister said. <\/p>\n<h3>&#8220;They did not go to face the Turkish threat&#8221;<br \/><\/h3>\n<p>Nikos Dendias did not fail to mention the issue that has arisen with the Patriot missiles in Karpathos.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They did not go there to deal with the Turkish threat, but missiles from Iran that have not been launched for six weeks,&#8221; he explained, while on the issue raised by Turkey he stressed:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I have warned about Turkish centrism, they were never placed there for Turkey. It was the operational planning for Iran, it is a national decision we did not ask NATO to go and get them.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>I don&#8217;t believe the &#8220;calm waters&#8221; narrative.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Finally, Mr. Dendias made it clear that he is not among those who have believed the &#8220;calm waters&#8221; narrative.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It is up to Turkey whether we will return to an operational crisis, we are not claiming anything,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Harsh statements by the Minister of National Defence on the Ukrainian drone and a new message on Greek-Turkish relations, with spikes on security and the &#8220;calm and peaceful&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6624,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6623\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}