Introduction

    I would like to begin with a short discussion on the use of the word “peace” The Turkish press uses the word to describe a new state of being between our two countries: a new situation that has arisen by an accident of nature.  I think that is true but it is only part of the story. The Greek press sees the word as a transaction, an exchange.  For example -- I will give you two steps for peace if you give me a big leap: peace is part of a bargain.  But peace is both a static state and a goal to be attained. Peace is an ongoing process where the parties involved work hard to bring it about and keep it alive.

    Regardless of how each one of us interprets the meaning of the word peace, I stand before you today with the pledge that as long as I live I shall commit my resources to work for the peace of our two peoples.

    I see peace as a process. Greece sees peace as a process. Its endpoint is peace in the Balkans, in the Middle East. In Greek Turkish relations it means rapprochement and cooperation – and Turkey as a member of the EU. Peace means that both of us – Greece and Turkey - accept our rights and with them our responsibilities.

    In this process politicians can play an important role.  Many have offered their help.  We welcome it.  But keep in mind that the real work will be done by you, the people: the Greek and the Turkish people.  There is also little room for third parties: even when their intentions are good their methods might be limiting.  Peace will come in our region “for the people” and “by the people”.

    I place great hope in the younger generation.  The new generation not only has a mind set different than those who came before us but it has not lived the tragic events of our century.

    This is why I welcomed your invitation.  There is no forum more powerful, than that of a University, to solicit activism. It is you who must strive to convince our leaders of our countries to continue this peace process.

    Will we succeed?  Lewis Carroll who wrote the children’s book ‘Alice in Wonderland’ is rarely quoted to describe Greek-Turkish relations - but perhaps he is not a bad choice let me give it a try:

    “… You see,” Carroll writes,  “so many out-of-the-way things had happened lately, that Alice had begun to think that very few things indeed were really impossible.”

    Some want to say that what we are living through today in our Greek – Turkish relationship is simply a ‘fairy tale’. And yet it is not. Because our people demand it! I therefore say this: It is time to dare the impossible.
 
Greece’s Balkan Policy

    A few months ago, my Turkish counterpart, Mr. Cem and I decided to embark upon a dialogue to discover issues of common interest, issues we can agree upon to make the lives of our people a little better.  Some people call them issues of low diplomacy, as if the environment and our cultural heritage are unimportant.  I prefer to call them something else: I call them issues of low anxiety.  I shall use this opportunity to explain the context in which we welcomed such a dialogue.

    In the Greece of today we share a vision with our neighbors.  That one day, from Cyprus to Romania, from Turkey to Bosnia, a United South Eastern Europe will become part of a United Europe.  We will become a family of nations, a bouquet of cultures, a kaleidoscope of ethnicities – where diversity is our strength – where borders are so profoundly respected and protected no one questions them and they therefore seem not to exist. Today in Europe one travels from Greece to France to Germany to Denmark and does so without even a passport.

    We therefore envision a region where the strength of our neighbors is also our strength.

    In pursuit of this vision, we have adopted what I like to call a Total Balkan Approach: one coherent and consistent approach of the European Community to each country in the region.  This approach asserts that each and every country has ownership over and rights within the process of integration.  Each country is eligible; each country will be helped morally as well as financially.  This includes Turkey. This future will include Bulgaria and Rumania. This future would also include Albania, Croatia, Bosnia, FYROM, and Yugoslavia. Once and for all, the international community, the United Nations, the European Union, NATO, should realize that peace in the region is badly served by double standards.

    We must at the same time not give in to our double standards. For example – Greece is going to demand a single set of standards for Turkey – where Turkey’s EU membership is involved. This also will mean that Turkey must apply it’s single set of standards equally well. This is the challenge for all of us. This is our great responsibility.

    Let me take another example. I encounter many today who are eager to “close the case” in the Balkans.  “Redraw the borders”, they claim, “ethnic isolation” – meaning separate states for separate ethnicities, they say, “will bring about peace.”  I say “no”. I say no because there are no short paths to peace in our region, there are no quick and easy roads.  I say no because this is not what the EU has done within it’s borders. European nations and the EU itself is a pluralist multiethnic region. And it is proud of it.

    We share with Turkey the fundamental belief that borders should not be redrawn to accommodate minorities. All our power should focus on protecting them within the existing ones.  And so I challenge you:  Let me plead for something that may perhaps echo strangely in these halls (in this city?) but it is something that I think you can understand. “Bring down the last remaining Berlin wall: let us free Cyprus from this burden.  Free us all from this burden.”

THE CYPRUS PROBLEM

    For Cyprus, today more than ever there is hope that a new initiative may break the deadlock. As Greece envisions a multicultural Balkans, we see Cyprus’ accession to the European Union as benefiting both communities living on the island. We invite the Turkish-Cypriots, in the spirit of a newfound friendship between Greeks and Turks to grab the historical opportunity and break down the last “Berlin Wall” that artificially divides these people.

TURKEY’S EUROPEAN ORIENTATION

    Greece strongly believes that Turkey has not only a future in the European family but that it is in its interest to become a full member of the most successful political and economic regional grouping, namely the European Union.

    The end of the Cold War has made evident that the exact structure and characteristics of the “new world order” are a matter of considerable uncertainty and that states are slowly becoming aware of the need for new thinking and for a broader definition of security. The notion of security has already changed, and is still changing, from what was overwhelmingly monopolized by military security during the Cold War to a range of non-military factors, such as economic, political, environmental and societal ones.

    Threats to national territory are becoming increasingly unconventional and difficult to defend against. Furthermore, the so-called “new” security issues cannot be addressed in the same confrontational manner as military security issues. Today more than ever it is evident that the growth of trans-boundary problems create “overlapping communities of fate”: meaning a state of affairs in which the fortune and prospects of individual political communities are increasingly bound together. Thus, given the trans-boundary nature of the threat these problems pose, it would be futile to seek to tackle them by unilateral measures; they require a coordinated and cooperative approach. Turkey, as we all very-well know, lies at the pivotal point of a geographical location encircled by the Caucasus, the Middle East and the Balkans, and it is therefore more exposed to the side-effects of intra- and inter-state conflicts in all of these regions. Thus, its decision to follow the path all advanced European countries are following towards European integration is a bold decision that must be applauded.

    Greece as a neighbour has a particular interest to see Turkey becoming a country that espouses and practices our common European values. This is the reason Greece supports a sincere and not superficial Europeanization.

    Opinions that have circulated in Europe, that in the case of Turkey cultural and religious criteria should be applied, find us completely opposed. The EU is by no means a closed “Christian Club”. On the contrary the European Union is based on our mutual interests in working together and in respecting and protecting its pluralist nature.

    There are no good and bad people in our region, only good and bad practices.

    It is these practices that we are challenged to apply.  For every right all countries share on the way to Union, they also share an equally supreme responsibility.

• They must build democratic institutions, pluralistic schools, judicial and financial systems, and competitive business and free media communities.

• They need to be aggressive in ensuing that all forms of likely threat to security within and among them are dealt with directly, openly, with vigor, under the rules of international law.

• Basic and universal economic help and development will have to fight against poverty and degradation that leads, with mathematical certainty, to ethnic and religious fanaticism and violence.

The above three points are also directly associated with the Stability Pact.

    Several friends in the EU approach me and say: “Come on Yiorgo, let Turkey be a candidate country by name alone: no rights, no responsibilities.  We will get them off our backs and it will take them thirty or fifty years to join.  By then many things will change.”

    To this proposition I say “No, absolutely not.  We want Turkey in the European Union, we want it to share all the rights and all the responsibilities involved, and we want to work on it now.”  Any other approach degrades the Turkish nation and undervalues the Turkish people.  A candidate Turkey with no rights and no responsibilities goes against our most fundamental principles of a total approach with no double standards.

The Dialogue

    In this new spirit, and guided by these principles we – Greece and Turkey – have embarked upon the Dialogue.

    Different people will make different things of our dialogue.  That should be understood.  Some will see it with hope; some will see it with fear.

    To many, who question several of God’s or Allah’s manifestations, the earthquakes that struck our countries are indeed perplexing.  Their timing is bewildering.  Their effects, although rational, seem mythical.  So deeply had we, the politicians, engrained ourselves to the things that divide us, that we had missed the things that join us.  So much had we focused on the finer points, that we had missed the big picture?  The earthquake gave people an opportunity to express a very simple premise: “This dialogue is about us!”

    The key word for this dialogue is “our people”.  From its conception this dialogue was not meant to be a process of complaint and whining about our histories nor was it meant as an ornament to keep our allies happy.  This dialogue will discover the ground on which our people will soon stand, the ground that will bring them closer.  Mr. Cem and I to do not intend to waste time on pointing fingers and going over past battles nor do we aspire to a handshake on the White House lawn.  We commit ourselves to get our people to embrace each other in the fields of dreams.
 
The Earthquakes and Civic Diplomacy

    In politics, ownership is everything.  We build our strength by laying claim on interesting ideas, successful programs and effective laws.  We argue on who said what and whether we were the first.  This is the nature of politics.

    In the 21st century, the speed of information shall make ownership practically impossible, certainly unimportant.  The moment an idea is conceived it will travel the world.  And people will act because of it, they will better it, build upon it.  This is the nature of technology.

    There are many politicians who fear these technologies for they try to hold on to their own ideas.  They keep them confined so that they can develop them alone.  They desperately protect them until they die.  For unless an idea is developed by people - it becomes irrelevant.  An irrelevant idea has no reason to exist.

    This is the essence of civic involvement.  In the political world of the 21st century, even the strictest (most astringent) of dictators will have trouble containing ideas.  The people will constantly question them and people alone will make them relevant.  Greenpeace to Doctors Without Frontiers and Doctors of the World are changing the concept of diplomacy and bringing a new dimension to our democratic societies, as we knew them.

    The units of AKUT and EMAK broke through the cement that had kept us apart for so many years. They were breaking through thick cement faster than we could think up ways of thanking them.  Cypriot volunteers were working on Turkish rubble before we could dream of ways of stopping them at the border.

    This is the essence of civic involvement and this is the essence of civic diplomacy.  Where politicians cannot fathom crossing frontiers, citizens must.  It is the utmost of challenges and it must happen now.  Schools and universities, teachers and students, hospitals and doctors, boy scouts and girl guides must fill the void we have created.  When you cross frontiers you shall understand and you shall be understood, you shall learn and you shall teach, you shall be healed from fear and you shall cure fear. Our differences will become our strength and source of learning. Dare to cross these frontiers and we shall follow you there. I say this to an academic community that knows so very well and is trained in just that: To think critically and to attempt to cross borders without fear and ignorance.

Conclusion

    I have used the podium of this historic institution to outline the policies of my country, policies that naturally affect this country.  I did so, for opportunities like this arise, unfortunately, rarely.  These policies and my assessments will find their way on the newsstands by tomorrow.  A university podium, however, lends itself for new and hopeful ideas, ideas that are not based on the past but look to the future.  Allow me then to repeat, in closing, the things I care about dearly which will probably never make it to the front page.

    In democratic states, politicians are meant to represent people.  The communication between the people and their politicians is the ground upon which a democracy is built.  Often this communication breaks down.  Not out of malice but due to difference between the speed at which politicians and their people react to new events.  In the rich histories of our two nations the slow pace of change allowed for communication breakdowns.  So did the overpowering role of our politicians.

    In our rapidly changing world, however, we do not have the time or the right to be slow in our reactions. This is the reason why I believe the voice of the people has to be strong, magnificent, overwhelming.  The voice of the people has to be heard and it has to set the pace.  Not through violence for violence often turns us back.  Instead, the voice of the people should be heard through activism, laborious and consistent work.

    I believe that the time has come that you, the students, the professors, the universities both here in Turkey and in Greece must play a crucial role. From the training of future teachers, history books, and visionary thinking on our two countries you must start playing your role.  We will continue in our pace, our slow, and careful pace.  But if we see you moving ahead of us we shall not stay far behind.  The dialogue belongs to you today.  The peace will belong to you tomorrow.

    I hold a letter in my hands.  It came to my office on Friday; the dean, the "pritanis", of the University in Athens, sent it to me.  “I regret that, due to prior arrangements, I will not be present at this event.”  He writes. “I would, however, like to ask you to communicate to the authorities and guests of the University of Istanbul the eagerness of the University of Athens to pursue cooperation and communication between the students and the professors of our two institutions.  The University of Athens has already invited the authorities of the University of Istanbul and the University of Ankara to explore ways in which the relations between our institutions can strengthen.  To pursue common cultural activities and to communicate a common message: that our people can live in peace and that the intellectual worlds of the two communities must work hard to that end.  We believe that the pen can solve more problems than the sword and that the intellectual leadership of our people should be committed to work always towards peace, friendship and the cooperation of our people.”

    We marvel in such letters; we pride in the people who write them; we are enlightened by their message.  We aspire to many such letters, many efforts to communicate, and many expressions of hope.  And we hope that politicians are used less and less to bring them across the Aegean.  The hard work is up to you now.  The dialogue is yours today.  For the peace will always be yours.
 

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