site.btaBalkan Brief

Greek Workers Strike over Soaring Prices, Low Wages

Athens - Greek workers began a day-long nationwide strike on Wednesday over what they call a "deepening crisis" of rising prices and squeezed incomes, disrupting transport, ferries, schools and public hospitals, Reuters reported.

The country's two biggest labour unions, representing about 2.5 million public and private sector workers, called the general strike expected to culminate in a protest in central Athens.

Greece emerged from a decade of financial crisis in 2018, only for the coronavirus pandemic to bring global travel to a standstill two years later, hurting its vital tourism industry.

Now, soaring energy prices, exacerbated by sanctions against Russia since its invasion of Ukraine in February, have further hurt workers' pockets.

"For the last 14 years, workers have been carrying the burden of a deep crisis that has affected everyone's incomes and lives," said GSEE, the country's umbrella private sector union.

"As the years go by the crisis is constantly deepening, the burdens remain, our rights are shrinking."

Greece's annual consumer inflation surged to a 25-year high of 7.2 per cent in February on the back of rising energy, housing and transportation costs.

The government has spent about 3.7 billion euro since September to alleviate the burden of soaring energy and fuel costs for farmers, households and businesses.

For the striking workers, the measures do not go far enough. GSEE said in March it had proposed a 13 per cent increase in the monthly gross minimum wage to 751 euro due to soaring inflation.

The government raised the minimum wage by 2 per cent to 663 euro in January and Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has promised a second, larger increase from May 1. 

Greece Declares 12 Russian Diplomats Personae Non Gratae

Athens – The Greek authorities have declared 12 members of the Russian Federation's diplomatic and consular mission accredited to Greece to be personae non gratae, the Greek foreign ministry announced on Wednesday.

This was done in accordance with the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and the 1963 Vienna Convention for Consular Relations, the announcement said.

Moscow will undertake reciprocal measures in relation to this decision by Greece, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told TASS agency.

A number of European countries, including Italy, Spain, Germany, France, Denmark and Sweden, have also undertaken such steps.

Ukraine’s Defence Imports from Turkey Jump 40-fold in Q1

Ankara - Ukraine received almost 30 times as much defence industry equipment from Turkey in first quarter as it did a year earlier, while it prepared for and fought against Russian invasion, official data, as quoted by Reuters, showed.

Turkey exported 59.1 million dollars of such products to Ukraine in the period, compared with 1.9 million dollars in the first quarter of 2021, data published by the Turkish Exporters' Assembly showed.

Ukraine has bought more than 20 Bayraktar TB2 armed drones from Turkish company Baykar in recent years and ordered a further 16 on January 27. That batch was delivered in early March.

Ankara and Kyiv have long-standing defence-cooperation ties.

A member of the NATO military alliance, Turkey shares a maritime border with Ukraine and Russia in the Black Sea, has good ties with both and has offered to mediate.

While it has continued to supply drones to Ukraine, it has also avoided imposing sanctions against Moscow.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has repeatedly criticised Russia for invading Ukraine, but also made clear that he wants communication channels to his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, to remain open.