Antenna: News in English (PM), 98-05-19

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From: Antenna Radio <http://www.antenna.gr> - email: antenna@compulink.gr

Last Updated: Tuesday, 19-May-98 22:55:15

CONTENTS

[01] Pangalos-GreekTurkish relations

[02] Burns-Apostolakis

[03] Archibishop Christodoulos

[04] Crocus plant-Cancer

[05] Sports

[01] Pangalos-GreekTurkish relations

In London Monday, president Clinton urged Greece and Turkey to find solutions to all their problems at the same time.

Theodoros Pangalos maintains though, that it isn't clear exactly what Clinton meant.

In London, US president Bill Clinton appeared to suggest that Greece and Turkey come up with a package formula to resolve all their differences, from Cyprus to Turkey's territorial claims on Greece and jurisdictional disputes in the Aegean.

Urging them to move quickly to put their problems behind them, he said they have difficult decisions to make.

Clinton called on the two sides to quote, "proceed on many fronts at once". Then he said he doesn't believe that any issue can be dealt with in isolation from the others.

Greek foreign minister Theodoros Pangalos finds that contradictory. "I don't understand it", he told reporters Tuesday.

Antenna's Athanassios Ellis reports from Washington that the state department is likely to issue a statement to the effect that the president did not mean to suggest a blanket, or package solution be found.

But Pangalos clarified the Greek position Tuesday. A package solution, he says, is sought when two parties are both claiming something from each other. In that case, you sit down and work out a compromise. But Greece isn't asking for anything from Turkey that goes beyond the existing status quo in the region and the international law of the sea that governs maritime borders. So what is there for Greece to negotiate over? "Negotiations", says Pangalos, "would mean pressure on Greece to surrender to Turkey's insane demands".

The demands Pangalos is referring to are Turkey's claims to Greek islands in the Aegean.

The foreign minister adds that neither can there be a blanket solution to both Greek-Turkish differences and the Cyprus problem.

And he insists that Cyprus can make no concessions to Turkey. "Cyprus has made its sacrifices", he says. "It's borne the invasion, the occupation, the violence, and the exchange of populations that essentially allowed the Turkish side to create two ethnically disparate communities in Cyprus. The kind of thing, that is, that the free world condemned in the case of Yugoslavia".

One of the other issues touched on by Clinton in London was opening the European Union door to Turkey. Pangalos says, though, that the EU cannot change its position: before it can receive EU funding and move closer to the EU, Turkey must improve its relations with Greece, help solve the Cyprus problem, and clean up its human rights record.

With Turkey periodically issuing thinly-veiled threats to use force to get its way in the Aegean, Pangalos was asked if he foresees a military incident between the two countries. He doesn't, was his reply. But accidents can occur, he added, which is why the utmost should be done to prevent any untoward events in the Aegean.

[02] Burns-Apostolakis

Nicholas Burns told Dimitris Apostolakis that Bill Clinton did not mean to suggest that a blanket solution should be found to all Greek-Turkish problems and the Cyprus issue.

Rather, said Burns, the White House believes that talks on all the different issues should be held concurrently.

After meeting with Burns Apostolakis said his reading of the Clinton statements was not that the US wants to see a blanket solution.

As far as the US president's reference to "difficult decisions", Apostolakis thinks that must have been addressed exclusively to Turkey, since it is the cause of the problems. "Turkey is the victimiser", says Apostolakis, "Greece the victim. It would be wrong to equate the two".

Apostolakis adds that he awaits further clarification of the American position. Sources say Burns has promised to talk to the state department and get Athens a clear idea of what Clinton has in mind.

According to the same sources, Burns also maintains he told the Turkish foreign minister that Ankara was wrong recently to call into question Greece's rights to several inhabited Aegean islands.

[03] Archibishop Christodoulos

But however busy he is, he always has time for young people.

Junior high school kids had the chance to talk to the archbishop at his Athens residence.

Christodoulos assured them his door will always be open to them, and that he doesn't want to preach to them, but exchange ideas with them. Promising to visit their school, said he hopes their hearts will always be full of love and optimism.

In a meeting with education minister Gerasimos Arsenis, Christodoulos discussed church-state relations.

The church will now have a more creative outlook when it comes to national issues than it has had in the

past, said the new archbishop. He added that he looks forward to greater understanding between the church and the state.

[04] Crocus plant-Cancer

Injections of extracts from the plant have prolonged the expected lifespan of lab mice with leukemia by fifty per cent.

Cultivated in the northern Greek region of Kozani, the small bulbous plant with purple flowers, is better known in cooking terms as saffron.

Pathologist Zaharias Sinakos says it's too early in the experimental process to draw any conclusions, but there is a possibility that the plant may be used to stop cancer in people in the distant future.

[05] Sports

There was a discordant note, as Olympiakos dropped its final match of the season just before the trophy presentation, a 2-nil upset at the hands of Veria.

But that score was was quickly forgotten as the crowd erupted in celebration and team captain Kyriakos Karataides raised the trophy that caps a spectaclar season. Olympiakos's 29-win, four-loss,

one-draw season is the best in the history of the Greek first division.

The festivities went on through the night on the streets of Piraeus and Athens.

The team did its celebrating at a night spot.

(c) ANT1 Radio 1998

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