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Athens gives discreet backing to Turkey over NATO row
Greece on Tuesday voiced support for its old foe and NATO ally Turkey in a row splitting the transatlantic alliance, but stopped short of blaming the three NATO members which sparked the crisis. France and Belgium, joined by Germany, vetoed a US request Monday to begin boosting Turkey's defenses ahead of a possible US-led strike on Iraq.
This is Greece, backing Turkey. In other news, Garfield announced he and Lassie are engaged.
"You understand perfectly well that, for reasons of one's own national interest, if a NATO member state invokes Article Four we cannot oppose it," government spokesman Christos Protopapas said. He was referring to Ankara's decison on Monday to activate an article in NATO's 1949 founding charter, which calls on the allies to consult whenever a member feels its territory is threatened. However the spokesman, asked several times about Greece's reaction to the triple veto that has now triggered emergency procedures for NATO's 19 members, declined to comment.
Greece has "protested on numerous occasions when NATO procedures were not launched even though (Greece) felt it was at risk of an attack", from Turkey he said. Greece, therefore, cannot be "one of those who would block the procedure," Protopapas said.
The country's respect for Turkey's use of Article Four has "nothing to do" with a looming war with Iraq, since Athens maintains its firm commitment to finding a peaceful, diplomatic resolution to the standoff with Baghdad, he said.
But at least they are consistant
Posted by: Steve 2003-02-11
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=10144