NIKOS KOTZIAS

'There was strife. He [Kotzias] nominated certain candidates that drew a negative reaction from local SYRIZA branches...but I am certain we will meet up in common pursuits in the future,' PM Tsipras said.

The former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff describes the government as a bunch of neo-communists with no respect for Greece's national interests.

Putin aggressively denied any intervention in Greek domestic affairs, of which then foreign minister Kotzias had openly accused Moscow.

'Visas for unaccompanied minors points to organ trade, and hence I have no burden on my conscience, as I know that I contributed to saving a few souls,' said the ex-foreign minister.

We are entering a pre-electoral period in which sensationalism, demagoguery, and mudslinging will predominate.

'He [Kammenos] spoke of secret funds. He also said that Soros is funding the government to buy off foreigners [to pass the Greece-FYROM Prespa Agreement],' former foreign minister Kotzias said in a bombshell interview.

Kotzias, with his trademark megalomania, unnecessarily opened an issue and gave an equally megalomaniacal Turkish leadership the opportunity to bring to the forefront the 1995 decision of Turkey’s parliament, which state that an extension of Greek territorial waters constitutes a casus belli, or cause for war.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has declared that, “The Turkish government is not about to allow Greece to extend its territorial waters to 12 nautical miles.”

The episodic 16 October cabinet meeting highlighted not only divergent strategies, but also the concealed discord and clashes that are unbefitting a coalition that determines the fate of the country.

It is not just the foreign ministry that manages secret funds. The defence ministry disburses comparable amounts, as do Greek Police, the Macedonia-Thrace ministry, and others.

Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias has tendered his resignation to Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, who immediately accepted it and announced that he will assume the portfolio. The resignation comes straight on the heels of yesterday’s stormy cabinet meeting, during which Kotzias lambasted Defence Minister Panos Kammenos, Tsipras’ junior coalition partner, after Kammenos on an official visit to Washington trashed the government’s Greece-FYROM Prespa Agreement and presented his own “Plan B”. Following a vitriolic exchange, Kotzias stormed out of the cabinet meeting and two hours later, at his request, was received by President Prokopis Pavlopooulos, with whom he had an hour-and-a-half discussion. It is believed that he signaled his intentions to Pavlopoulos. In announcing today that he will assume the foreign affairs portfolio, a clearly unsettled Tsipras declared – in a clear message to Kammenos - that he will tolerate no double-talk or personal agendas on the part of ministers, and in a clear message to Greece’s allies, he strongly stressed his unswerving support for the “historic” Prespa Agreement and FYROM PM Zoran Zaev’s feverish efforts this week to pass in parliament the constitutional amendments required by the accord. Kotzias was reportedly enraged by Tsipras’ decision to keep an equal distance from his two ministers, even though Kotzias for months had conducted the arduous negotiation that led to an agreement that Tsipras fiercely defends and touts as an historic achievement. At the cabinet meeting, Kotzias ripped into Kammenos, charging that the defence minister is actively undermining the interests of Greece and the government. Late last night and this morning Kotzias’ associates signaled his intense annoyance and indicated that he was considering resigning. Those leaks triggered a decisive public reaction by government spokesman Dimitris Tzanakopoulos, who repeated the late prime minister Andreas Papandreou’s famed quote that “whoever cannot endure should get off the train”, a thinly veiled allusion to Kotzias. That statement strongly suggests that Tsipras had already had taken his decision to sacrifice Kotzias in order to save his coalition with Kammenos. That appears to have been the straw that broke the camel’s back. Some said that Kotzias was a step closer to resigning and others that Kotzias was already gathering his personal effects in the ministry. Government cadres are said to have aligned themselves with the substance of Tzanakopoulos’s message. Kotzias was reportedly enraged by Tsipras’ decision to keep an equal distance from himself and Defence Minister Panos Kammenos, even though Kotzias for months had conducted the arduous negotiations that led to the Prespa Accord, which Tsipras fiercely defends and touts as an historic achievement.

'Since the referendum was consultative, and not mandatory, it is now up to the Members of Parliament, chosen by the people, to make a decision respecting and following the interests of the citizens, the country and their personal duty,' Zaev told Ta Nea in an exclusive interview.

The minutes of meetings in FYROM reveal that Tsipras and Kotzias had agreed for FYROM to be renamed “Republic of Ilinden Macedonia”, and yet the government has gone on the offensive on issues of minor significance.

Cavusoglu, seized the opportunity to raise the issue of the eight Turkish military officers who sought asylum in Greece after the failed coup of July, 2016, in which they insist they did not participate

The Minister of Foreign Affairs was tough claiming that those said about the two militants spying are nonsense