Simitis: Turkey-Greece war would last 2 hours

25 January 2012 / TODAY’S ZAMAN, İSTANBUL

Former Greek Prime Minister Kostas Simitis has said that Greece’s arms race with Turkey would give the country no advantage in a possible confrontation with Turkey, deeming it a waste of economic resources of the crisis-torn country, saying Greece would only last two hours in the event of a war with Turkey.

“Should a war with Turkey erupt, Greece’s armament would be of no use. Such a war will be fought for two or three hours,” Simitis claimed at a conference organized by the Germany-based Heinrich Böll Foundation in Berlin on Tuesday.

Greece, the country with the highest military expenditure-to-gross domestic product (GDP) ratio in Europe, has in a way become a victim of its arms race with Turkey. Despite claiming that Turkey tries to provoke the existing conflicts between the two countries, Simitis said: “Greece should not waste its resources on armament; it should instead turn to the EU to resolve any conflicts. The EU should be a guarantor for Greece’s external security.”