Dora Bakoyannis: Greece “Accepts Kosovo Reality”

20 November 2008 Tirana Greek Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis in an interview with the Albanian TV channel Vizion Plus said that although Greece currently does not recognise Kosovo’s independence, it should accept reality.
Greek Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis says Athens will soon recognise Kosovo’s independence because it has to accept the reality of the situation.
Speaking to Albanian media, Bakoyannis declared that Greece will soon recognise Kosovo’s independence, although stop short of naming a date for this decision.
“I don’t know what will happen later. I can say that we don’t actually recognise Kosovo, but we will soon,” she stated.
Bakoyannis blamed the delayed recognition on regional conflicts and goals that have inflicted the Balkans for many years but admitted that the truth cannot be changed.
“Kosovo’s problem is one of the oldest problems of the Balkans. We do not recognise its independence based on the principle of territorial integrity, but on the other side we know that the flow of the river cannot change,” she said.
Bakoyannis added that Greece has good relations with Kosovo.
“We have opened an office there, and deal with affairs between people,” she said.
Meanwhile, the Greek Foreign Minister also highlighted excellent relations with Serbia.
“With Serbia, we have had excellent relations for a long time. We support their ambitions to join the European Union and hope that during the last couple of years improvements have occurred there, which will allow them to become closer to the EU,” she said.
“Greece won’t recognize Kosovo”
Greek Ambassador to Belgrade Christos Panagopoulos told Tanjug on Wednesday that his country’s position on Kosovo remains unchanged.
Panagopoulos said the position of the Greek government and its foreign ministry has not changed, and that Greece “will not recognize any time soon Kosovo, in keeping with respect of territorial integrity of states”.
Pristina daily Koha Ditore has misquoted Greek Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis as saying that Athens will allegedly recognize Kosovo soon, Panagopoulos said.
Any wrong interpretation or undue tension should be avoided, as Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis told Serbian Prime Minister Mirko Cvetković when he visited Athens one week ago, he said.
“I do not know what will happen later, but I do know that we will not recognize Kosovo in the near future,” Panagopoulos told the news agency, stressing this was “a very categorical position”.
Greece is one of the five European Union member states that have still not recognised Kosovo’s independence. The others are Romania, Spain, Slovakia and Cyprus.Greek Government since last September decided to recognize the passports of citizens from Kosovo-Metohija and to start issuing visas in the Greek office in Pristina.