Wash Post anonymous source says Greece threatened militarily during negotiations

Submitted by joe shikspack on Mon, 07/13/2015 - 6:53pm

I found this nugget (which I retitled) inside a Wapo article:

Report: Greek leader threatened with military hostilities

Greece’s dire financial straits meant it had scant leverage to push back against some of its creditors’ most onerous demands. ...

The moves are fostering a deep sense of resentment among Tsipras’s allies and a conviction that Europeans sought to humiliate him. During a pivotal meeting with Merkel, French President François Hollande and European Council President Donald Tusk, Tsipras at one point received a thinly veiled threat that if he walked away and left the euro, Greece risked going it alone geopolitically, too.

According to two officials in Brussels with knowledge of the exchange, the specter was raised of aggression from Turkey — a neighboring nation viewed in Greece as a historic antagonist.

Germany bore the brunt of Greek rage. Greece’s defense minister, Panos Kammenos — head of Tsipras’s coalition partner, the Independent Greeks — called the deal a “coup by Germany” and its allies. It remained unclear whether his party would back the deal in Parliament .

“They blackmailed the prime minister,” he said in a television interview. “This agreement is not close to our values. We can’t agree.

Meanwhile, 30 members of the ruling Syriza party threatened to resign Monday rather than approve the deal.

Tags: 
greece
bailout
eurozone
merkel
threats
blackmail
financial terrorism
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Submitted by gjohnsit on Mon, 07/13/2015 - 8:20pm

That explains a lot.
You can bet Italy and Spain are watching everything.

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Submitted by gjohnsit on Mon, 07/13/2015 - 8:35pm

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Submitted by JtC on Mon, 07/13/2015 - 8:38pm

of mine from last night's Evening Blues insinuating the same thing only from a slightly different angle. Tsipras faces potential military aggression if Greece doesn't accept the deal, and if Greece does accept I feel that eventually the Greek people will be in the streets in earnest, IMHO, he's between a rock and a hard place, I wouldn't want to be in his shoes for one second.

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Submitted by joe shikspack on Mon, 07/13/2015 - 9:05pm
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or will be within a month or three. his position is entirely untenable. his people at this point don't like slavery, but still love their chains and do not recognize the face of their oppressor.

tsipras is in the wrong place at the wrong time. he has done a great service to his country, exposing the eurozones mafiosi for all the world to see as anti-democratic, greedy oppressor pigs. for that service he will probably reap no thanks or reward. what the people wanted of him was not in the power of any government of greece to deliver. a much larger portion of the people of greece will have to rise up and reject their chains before they can free themselves. frankly, the syriza people are not the sort of revolutionaries that will be needed, i doubt that they have the requisite military skill to lead a fight against the forces arrayed against them.

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Submitted by gjohnsit on Mon, 07/13/2015 - 9:59pm

to everyone. It'll be interesting to see how the rest of southern Europe act in the coming months.

Greece is f*cked either way. But their sacrifice might save a lot of other countries. The Euro has peaked and will decline from here on.

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Submitted by mimi on Tue, 07/14/2015 - 12:34pm
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before there would be a military engagement from any side. And then I believe that the US and the IMF will "rescue" the situation somehow. Of course that "rescue" too will be anti-democratic and greedy and oppressive. I would let the EU destroy themselves. They have started to do that. Just a matter of time.

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Submitted by shaharazade on Tue, 07/14/2015 - 2:49pm
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on the political breakdown in Greece over this blackmailing thuggery.

Greeks Rebel Against Bailout, Risk Collapse
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2015/07/greeks-rebel-against-bailout-risk...

If the deal falls apart somewhere along the line, Greece has no money to bail out the banks, insure deposits, or do anything else. Given the chaos, uncertainty, and distrust of their government, Greeks are now unlikely to pay any taxes. And so the government then won’t be able to pay salaries and the like, at least not in euros, to their striking civil servants. And there still is no final deal, no money, no debt relief, no nothing. That’s one heck of an accomplishment for six months in power. But outside Greece, the party goes on, and stocks are soaring.

Here's another good one from Naked Capitalism an interview Yanis Varoufakis from June 26 2012

Yanis Varoufakis: Greece is Finished
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/06/yanis-varoufakis-greece-is-finish...

YANIS VAROUFAKIS, ECONOMICS, ATHENS UNIVERSITY: Well, the derailment of the train that is the eurozone, which started with Greece and then other carriages started leaving the tracks sequentially – Ireland, Portugal, now Spain – is continuing. And yesterday’s vote is not going to change that at all. All exuberance and celebrations are completely and utterly misplaced. I’m afraid that the eurozone and Europe is continuing along the path of the last two years of a cascade of errors, a comedy of errors. Just look at Spain, what is happening there today. Look at what is happening in Italy. Unless the logic or what passes as logic in the European approach to this crisis alters and alters fast, very soon the eurozone will be history....

It depends on what happens in the eurozone. Just like what happened in Ohio depended of the rise of President Roosevelt and the New Deal, unless we have a new deal for Europe, Greece is not going to get a chance. Now it doesn’t mean that if Europe fix itself, Greece will fix itself. It’s a necessary condition that the eurozone finds a rational plan for itself. It’s not a sufficient condition. Europe may fix itself and Greece, being so flimsy and malignant, may still have huge problems and never recover. But until and unless the eurozone finds a rational plan for stopping this train wreck throughout the European Union, throughout the eurozone, Greece has no chance at all.

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Submitted by dkmich on Tue, 07/14/2015 - 6:31am

I cannot understand how people or governments allow themselves to be bullied and intimidated. The only thing you can count on is that any attempt to mollify will be met by more aggression. If you're going to lose anyway, why not go down swinging?

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

Submitted by joe shikspack on Tue, 07/14/2015 - 3:10pm
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that kept him from going public with it. he is dealing with thugs, their response to having their threats made public would probably be pretty nasty.

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Submitted by gulfgal98 on Tue, 07/14/2015 - 12:16pm
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On this subject. There is some interesting discussion with in his diary. Also, here is a link to an interview with Yanis Varufakis, the former Minister of Finance. It is extremely enlightening. According to Varufakis, the ability to negotiate was never on the table. It was a very ugly situation from the very beginning. What is happening to Greece is the looting of a country before the EU decides to jettison it.

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“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

Submitted by shaharazade on Tue, 07/14/2015 - 1:14pm
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“I think there is a possibility to return to the growth path, but it is going to take a long time and it is going to be an arduous road.” The arrogance is amazing. I live blogged the marathon summit/conference or whatever at the Guardian and it freaked me out as these rich greedy thugs do own the world. 'The growth path' sounds like an evil religious cult. In a way it is, endless growth is the 'oligarchical collectivists' religion, they really believe are doing God's work. The Troika is nothing but a mafioso gang. Nasty looking lot of thugs to boot. Christine Lagarde is almost as creepy as Hillary. Really depressing to watch what's happening to the Greek people and people globally Isn't there a NATO base in Greece?

Austerity and privatization for people globally while these fuckers stuff their casino bank's full of dirty funny money. In my city here in Portland OR we are getting a local version endless growth, austerity and privatization. Just wait till the TPP, and all the other attacjed T's set in. Lot's of Shanghai money behind Portland's endless demolition and development 'growth'. Disaster capitalism at work.

Today I've been reading Yves at Naked Capitalism

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2015/07/greeks-rebel-against-bailout-risk...

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