Athens , 24 February 2011

Journalist: Let’s see how Greek diplomacy is proceeding now, initially with the Greeks who are in Libya, but not just with the Greeks. Foreign Ministry spokesman Gregory Delavekouras will explain it to us. Good morning, Mr. Delavekouras.

Mr. Delavekouras: Good morning.

Journalist: Hello.

Journalist: So, how will you be proceeding?

Mr. Delavekouras: First of all, last night we completed the evacuation of Greeks who wanted to be repatriated from Benghazi with the two ships, which are essentially operating in cooperation with the Chinese side, and those two ships are now on their way to Greece.

Journalist: How many are being repatriated.

Mr. Delavekouras: There are about 25 Greeks.

Journalist: Right.

Mr. Delavekouras: Now, in about half an hour, three C-130s are scheduled to depart – two for Tripoli and one for Sabha. Sabha will be the gathering point for Greeks working on various construction sites in the wider region there.

Journalist: The issue is not just where they will leave from, but, I assume, how they will get to those places. Have you resolved this?

Mr. Delavekouras: They will have to get there via their own transport. That is the effort that needs to be made, and we have arranged for them to gather at a specific time so that they can board more quickly and take off immediately.

Journalist: And is the Greek Foreign Ministry fulfilling requests from other countries, Mr. Delavekouras?

Mr. Delavekouras: Wherever we have the available means, yes. EU civil protection was put into action last night, so we are providing in that direction as well, but we are also using means that our partners have. We are working with other countries that are using Greek vessels to evacuate their citizens, so it is an effort that requires very good coordination. But the situation is also changing constantly; the situation in Libya is very unstable right now.

Journalist: Is the Foreign Ministry in contact with the Qaddafi administration? Because traditionally, particularly under Pasok governments, there were such contacts. Where do we stand right now? Has the leadership in Libya disappeared? Is there any contact with them?

Mr. Delavekouras: What we are dealing with directly is the humanitarian situation and the evacuation of our citizens. After a great effort and a great many difficulties, we managed to get flyover and landing permits, which were a basic requirement for our being able to fly these planes. This happened late last night, and thanks to this, we are departing today.

Journalist: And these permits …

Mr. Delavekouras: Beyond that, we will see how things develop, because, as I said earlier, we are talking about a completely fluid state of affairs. You can’t know what you are going to come up against.

Journalist: And how many Greeks do you expect to bring back, Mr. Delavekouras? In total.

Mr. Delavekouras: We are talking about a total of about 250 persons. But that figure is very relative, because we are in constant contact, and they are using any means of transport they have. Yesterday, some of them apparently returned from Tripoli in an aircraft, so it is an effort in which the situation is changing constantly.

Journalist: That was Foreign Ministry spokesman Gregory Delavekouras on the effort that will begin at 09:00, with the departure of the C-130s. We thank him very much and wish him a good day.