Manlio Dinucci
The Greek Parliament ratified the "Cooperation Agreement for Mutual Defense", which grants the United States the use of all Greek military bases. They will be used by the US military not only for storing armaments, stock up and train, but also for "emergency response" operations, that is, for attack missions.
The Larissa Air Base is particularly important, where the US Air Force has already deployed MQ-9 Reaper drones, and that of Stefanovikio, where the US Army has already deployed Apache and Black Hawk helicopters.
The agreement was defined by the Greek defense minister, Nikos Panagiotopoulos, 'Beneficial to our national interests, since it increases the importance of Greece in US planning ". Importance that Greece has long had: it is enough to recall the bloody coup d'état of the colonels, organized in 1967 as part of the Stay-Behind operation directed by the CIA, which was followed in Italy by the season of massacres that began with that of Piazza Fontana in 1969.
In that same year he settled in Greece, in Souda Bay on the island of Crete, a US naval detachment from the Sigonella base in Sicily, under the orders of the US Command in Naples. Today Souda Bay is one of the most important US / NATO air bases in the Mediterranean, used in the wars in the Middle East and North Africa.
In Souda Bay, the Pentagon will invest others 6 million euros, which will be added to 12 that will invest in Larissa, announces Panagiotopoulos, presenting it as a big deal for Greece.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, however, specifies that Athens has already signed an agreement with the Pentagon to upgrade its fleet of F-16s, which will cost Greece 1,5 billions of dollars, and that it is also interested in purchasing drones and F-35 fighters from the US. Greece also stands out for being in NATO, after Bulgaria, the European ally that for some time has been allocating the highest percentage of GDP to military spending (The 2,3%).
The Agreement also guarantees the United States "unlimited use of the port of Alexandroupolis". It is located on the Aegean near the Dardanelles Strait which, connecting the Mediterranean and the Black Sea in Turkey, it constitutes a fundamental maritime transit route especially for Russia.
In addition, the neighboring Eastern Thrace (the small European part of Turkey) that's where it comes from Russia, across the Black Sea, the TurkStream pipeline.
The "strategic investment", that Washington is already carrying out in the port infrastructure, aims to make Alexandroupolis one of the most important US military bases in the region, capable of blocking the access of Russian ships to the Mediterranean e, At the same time, to counter China which intends to make Piraeus an important port of call on the New Silk Road.
“We are working with other democratic partners in the region to push back evil actors like Russia and China, first of all Russia which uses energy as an instrument of its evil influence ", declares US ambassador to Athens Geoffrey Pyatt, emphasizing that "Alexandroupolis plays a crucial role in energy security and the stability of Europe".
The "Cooperation Agreement for Mutual Defense" with the US fits into this framework, which the Greek Parliament ratified with 175 center-right votes in favor of the government (New Democracy and others) E 33 contrary (Communist Party and others), while 80 declared "present" according to the formula of the US Congress, equivalent to abstention, in use in the Greek Parliament.
It was Syriza to abstain, the "Coalition of the Radical Left" led by Alex Tsipras. Party before government, now in opposition, in a country that, after being forced to sell off his economy, now it sells off not only its military bases but what little remains of its sovereignty.
(the poster, 11 February 2020)