Yılmaz denies ‘fire’ remarks that caused outrage in Greece
Former Prime Minister Mesut Yılmaz on Tuesday said a report published in the Birgün daily, where he was quoted as having said that a former prime minister used discretionary funds allocated for security to set Greek forests on fire, had misquoted him.
Yılmaz, in an interview with Birgün last week, allegedly said the setting of fires in Greek forests was an official secret. He went on to say Tansu Çiller, another former prime minister, had allocated a discretionary fund to be used for these fires.
The Greek fires were allegedly set by Turkish secret service agents while Çiller was prime minister in the 1990s. They were set in retaliation for fires that occurred in touristic areas of Turkey that were allegedly set by Greece around the same time.
Yılmaz spoke to reporters on Tuesday at İstanbul Atatürk Airport as he was waiting for a flight to Los Angeles. Denying the remarks in the Birgün story, Yılmaz said, “The news story is completely the result of a misunderstanding; my remarks were falsified. I am the victim of the daily, which was interested in stirring up sensationalism in Turkey.”
Yılmaz went on to repeat his original remarks. He said: “In the interview, I only referred to the forest fires in touristic areas of Turkey in the 1990s. In response to a question about what can be defined as a state secret, I said: ‘There were some data and assessments that these Turkish forest fires were deliberately set by the Greek secret service agents, but we didn’t reveal this in order to not damage foreign policy relations between Greece and Turkey unless [the allegations] were proven. So in this sense, this issue should be regarded as a ‘state secret,’ but all of my remarks were changed and falsified in order to stir up sensationalism.”
He added that he did not mention a discretionary fund that the daily claimed was allocated for the setting of forest fires in Greece. Concerning the reactions in Greece, Yılmaz also said Greek politicians reacted prematurely.
Yılmaz’s most recent statements were announced under the headlines “Yılmaz denied his confession” and “Yılmaz: My remarks were misunderstood” in the Greek media.
His remarks as stated in the news story caused outrage in the Greek media and among politicians.
Greece’s Supreme Court prosecutor Yiannis Tentes launched an emergency inquiry, ordering investigations reopened into the mid-1990s wildfires blamed on arson, while the Foreign Ministry said it was seeking an official response from Ankara.
“Information that has been published and attributed to former Prime Minister of Turkey Mr. Yılmaz by the Turkish press is serious and should be investigated,” Greek Foreign Ministry spokesman Gregory Delavekouras said in a statement. “The Greek side expects to be informed by the authorities of Turkey.” The state TV station ERT and other TV stations have given wide coverage to Greek politicians’ reactions.
Foreign affairs spokesman for the New Democratic Party, the conservative political party in Greece, Panos Panayotopulos told Greek media: “Yılmaz’s confessions that the Turkish ‘deep state’ burned Greek forests cast a dark shadow over Greek-Turkish relations. The current Erdoğan government is obligated to share in-depth information about this dark episode and should also make restitution for major damage caused to Greece at that time due to forest fires.”
Calling on EU institutions to deal with the issue, Panayotopulos demanded that the Turkish government gives assurances that it has ceased these types of “dirty” tactics.
LAOS, the far-right party in Greece, released a statement on the issue. It recalled the allegations of its leader Giorgos Karatzaferis, who accused Turkish agents of setting the Greek forest fires and who was called an extremist by party members at the time. The statement also said, “However, due to remarks from a former Turkish prime minister, we have an admission of guilt.”
A former Greek foreign minister and currently leader of the Democratic Alliance (a centrist-liberal political party in Greece), Dora Bakoyannis said Yılmaz’s admission that forests on Greece’s eastern Aegean islands were deliberately set on fire by Turkish secret agents creates a major political problem, and the Greek government should closely examine the issue.
Noting that at that time, the area of lands burning on the Greek islands was 200 percent larger than in other parts of Greece, Bakoyannis offered a three-stage proposal to the Greek government to use in handling this issue. In the first stage, the government should, through its foreign minister, denounce Turkey in the EU and in other international platforms. In the second stage, the government should claim compensation from Turkey for reforestation and for the economic damage the fires caused at the time. In the final stage, the Greek Ministry of Environment should complete reforestation efforts on the islands in the shortest time possible.
Meanwhile, the issue captured headlines on Monday in the Greek dailies. Ta Nea daily said Yılmaz’s remarks could be the result of conflict between Çiller and Yılmaz. The daily also wrote that between 1995 and 1997, the Greek government suspected that these forest fires were started by foreign agents, but they could not find any evidence to prove it.
Another Greek daily, Dimokratia, claimed under the headline ‘Turkey was burning our forests” that the Greek government will demand compensation for the families of people who lost lives in the fires and financial damage the fires caused.
Stating that Yılmaz made a shocking confession, the Greek daily Elefteros Tipos gave space to the claims of Andrianos Gurbatsis, an official from Greece’s fire department, who claimed that he saw Turkish agents throw a signal flare from an inflatable boat off Chios [Greek island].
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Türkischer Geheimdienst verantwortlich für die großen Waldbränden in Griechenland!
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