Greece Faces Growing Tensions With Turkey and Rising Security Challenges

0:00 Speaker 1 Sunday morning, well, middle of the summer, middle of August. And with us today is his Royal Highness, Prince Pavlo, and he’s the Crown Prince of Greece, which means that he’s in lyne to be king, but there’s no kingdom in Greece anymore. But he’s a good friend. He loves Greece and usually this time of year we’re both there

0:22 for at least a week or two. And I understand you go back and forth a lot. Well, your Royal Highness, Prince Pavlo, give us your give us your pulse of what’s going on in Europe, give us your pulse of what’s going on in Greece. Y, good morning, John.

0:41 Speaker 2 And I only please call me Pablos because that’s what everybody calls me in Greece. You know, we’re on a first name basis, and you know I enjoy our camaraderie and our friendships as good New Yorkers as well. Yeah, I’ve spent much more time now in Greece, and so I’m over here seeing some of the family and friends

1:03 that were over here in the last part of the summer. And we’ll be returning again at the end of the week. It’s been a it’s been a good summer. You know. Tourism is doing well in Greece, so we’ve had a lot of support, a lot of Americans coming over, uh, Greek Americans and and and and normal Americans coming there.

1:22 We we we have done our best to make everybody happy. We’ve had some fires, like we’ve voted had every year. Uh. Sadly, we’ve had some deaths with firemen, firefighters and and helicopter accidents. These things do happen, and it’s a really sad thing to have taken place. But the fires have been put under control and things have been managed fairly well. So

1:49 in that respect, we we move forward and hope they will not be too many more coming forward. But otherwise, yeah, things are working well in Greece. We we just have to be aware of our neighbors. And as you know, Turkey has been our neighbor, been fairly quiet over the years last few years with Greece directly, but they’re stepping

2:11 up there. They’re sort of, if you want, offensive, in opening up these marine parks which they’re declaring as reserves and they want to protect, but they are also declaring these in Greek waters, which you know, may become a big issue. As you know, we have to protect our waters and they want to protect them as well, and

2:33 so they’re going over over our barriers in that respect. And the President has declared in in Turkey that by October they’re going to have the Blue, the Blue, the New Blue Turkey, which is expanding their their water borders all the way into past Julen Islands into the cycladic zone practically. So that’ll be a pablo.

3:02 Speaker 1 That’s what I was always afraid of because you know, I was born on the Greek island of Nidos, and I always tell the Defense Minister of Greece, make sure you take care of Nisidos, and you know, jokingly, but like you said, Turkey likes to extend their borders, uh.

3:20 And those islands are only ten twenty thirty miles off the Turkish coast, and there’s you know, everybody knows, there’s a lot of minerals there, and there’s a lot of other things there that you know, and money makes the world go round. And President Trump would never allow anything to happen. But but the fact is that you might

3:45 get another week President someday, and I guess Greece has to be careful. And the one thing I’ve always said to the Greek people, because I don’t play politics, I love the year, I love the country, and now it’s the land of my forefathers. And I said, don’t allow.

4:04 I told all the politicians, all sides, don’t allow Greece to be invaded like Germany was, like France was, like the Great Britain was. And that’s what I do and say to get things off my chest.

4:20 Speaker 2 Yeah, well, I mean, you’re absolutely right. And the current government, the Prime Minister and the Minister of Defense, had done an excellent job in upgrading our defense. We have excellent news ships that are coming. We are using the F thirty five’s already, so we’re in a good position to stand our ground and protect our land, and we need

4:45 to have a good economic and political structure that protects us in that respect. We’ve just made an agreement between Israel Cypress and ourselves to have cabling come across to the countries for communication, which the Turks have been opposing for a long time. But now the French independent companies will be laying these cables, so they will also be

5:12 protecting that so it won’t be just asked, but it will be the French involved as well as protecting these bits of water the cables will be going through. So we’re making a stand that that would make it more international if the Turks try to stop our ships doing their work. So you know, we’re we’re we’re moving towards

5:33 positive ground and we just have to protect our Patrida as we call it, our homeland. And we very much enjoy the strong relationship with the United States, and you know, hope to maintain that. Well.

5:47 Speaker 1 I was with you, I was with your cousin of King Charles, his World Highness, and he liked the Greek tie I was wearing, and I sent him a few Greek ties and he sent me a note back. He really loved them. And now your second cousins or first cousins with the.

6:05 Speaker 2 King where whereas second cousins. And he has always had a great love for our country. Obviously, his father was originally Greek, so he is part Greek himself, and the relationship has always been very strong. And we’ve worked with him here and you’ve been very helpful as well on the King’s Trust International, which is a program helping young

6:27 people get into work and starting their own businesses, and it’s been very productive in the United States as well as in Greece. Has been exceptionally productive where I bought it to the country as well, and so we thank you for your help on that. It’s been an amazing drive over the last eight years.

6:44 Speaker 1 Well, Pablo, you know are you know I’m an American, but my forefathers, your forefathers were Greek, and you know, I have a lot of love for the country, and I don’t play politics. I just what’s best for the Greeks, for the Greek people, and for the country of Greece.

7:04 Speaker 2 Yeah, I think we all have to work for the best of our countries exactly. Politics on the side. We have to work as united people, not as broken up, and not play party politics, but just get the job done, protect your country, open economy and democratic systems that make everybody better people. Keep to your original ideals, stick to

7:28 your church and your family, and everything will do well.

7:33 Speaker 1 Thank you so much, and we’ll catch up again real soon.

7:36 Speaker 2 John, You’re all the best. Thank you so much.