International

Witnesses in the Greek witness protection programme are continuing to offer incriminating testimony against non-political figures who held significant posts or wielded influence in the health sector.

Yildirim essentially blamed the Greek side for Monday’s near deadly ramming of a Greek Coast Guard ship, claiming it had no right to approach the Imia islets, which under international law and treaties belong to Greece, but which Turkey claims as its own.

Noting that Turkey and Greece have longstanding diplomatic channels for addressing Aegean issues, the State Department encouraged both sides to take steps that will de-escalate the situation

With the imperial powers that Erdogan assumed after the abortive coup attempt against him, and after he leveled his opponents and any democratic institutions that existed in Turkey, he is behaving as if he were the sultan of the broader region.

A Turkish foreign ministry statement today blamed yesterday’s near deadly incident surrounding the Imia islets on the Hellenic Coast Guard, claimed sovereignty over the Greek Imia islets, and denied that the Greek foreign ministry’s statement that Athens filed a strongly-worded demarche on the Imia incident.

Tsipras reportedly underlined, “the need to immedaiately cease mounting, provocative Turkish violations in the territorial waters and airspace of Greek islands in the Aegean, and to de-escalate tensions there”.

'We also would like to stress the need to respect the sovereignty of member-states over their territorial sea and airspace, and we’d also like to say that negative statements that damage good neighbourly relations should be avoided,' said the European Commission spokesman.

The message conveyed by Athens was that incidents, such as that on Monday night, which endanger human lives, are the result of the heightened and escalating, provocative behavior that Ankara has exhibited over the last days.

The Greek foreign ministry has filed a strongly worded demarche with the general secretary of the Turkish foreign ministry over an incident that could have potentially led to the sinking of a Greek ship, in Greek territorial waters in the vicinity of the Imia islets.

Citizens will be treated to ever more toxic doses of scandal-mongering, which only manages to further shred the already low overall credibility of the political system and of the top institutions of a state that abides by the rule of law, such as the judiciary.

Stournaras said such a credit line will benefit the economy by helping to lower the cost of borrowing. It will offer Greece security in funding its borrowing needs after the bailout ends in August, especially if the climate in international markets worsens.

Quite a few billions of euros were lost due to the Novartis affair, and drugs overpricing between 2000-2010 led to 23 billion euros in losses, according to preliminary calculations, the PM asserted.

There was an extensive operation – as everyone by now recognises and has been proven - to corrupt the broader health system: doctors, pharmacists, officials at hospitals and insurance funds, their supervisors, and by extension the entire country.

'We have restored the macroeconomic balance of the economy and the requisite trust of the market and financial institutions. Entrepreneurial and investment activity has recommenced, yet much must be done in the way of reforms,' Papadimitriou said.

“Alexis Tsipras is a statesman with international prestige, but that does not mean that he is the leader of the planet, nor does he have magical powers, with which to set up such a plot with the FBI, witnesses, and the American Justice Department,” the spokesman said.

'In 2017, growth in Greece was 1.6 percent, and in 2018 we project that it will rise to 2.5 percent. The longer GDP remains on a positive course, the more substantial the debt relief measures will be,' Moscovici said.

While all the possible scenarios were reviewed, including sending the file back to the judiciary, sources say that the government is leaning toward the creation of a parliamentary preliminary criminal investigation.

It is irrational at a time when the country is returning to the markets and a certain normalcy, to give investors an impression of political uncertainty and instability.

FYROM Prime Minister Zoran Zaev has said that he opposes a revision of the country’s Constitution to remove remaining irredentist elements, as Greece has requested.

The lawyer for three Greeks who have entered a witness protection programme in the United States claims that his clients have videotaped and audio files that support their allegations of kickbacks.