Editorial: Lessons

The evacuation of the refugee and migrant camp in the Evros region is good news at a gloomy time.

It is good above all for the migrants and refugees who were exploited by Turkey’s leadership as a tool of blackmail to achieve objectives that were anything but humanitarian.

Any way one looks at it such a strategy is inhumane.

The evacuation is also good for Greece.

That is not only because it eliminated the pressure on the Greek-Turkish border but also because Ankara’s stratagem was successfully thwarted by the government.

Turkey’s blackmail did not pass.

The president of Turkey learned a lesson which one hopes he will find useful in the future.

The successful outcome of this challenge did not come on its own.

It required the decisiveness and composure of the Greek side and the display of determination on Europe’s part.

In particular, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron din not allow Ankara to drag them into bargaining which it hoped to conduct on its terms.

It required an organised and comprehensive response and that constitutes a lesson for Europe.

A swift, decisive, and non-negotiable reaction to such challenges is required in this difficult period.

In such circumstances a positive outcome such as that in Evros is feasible only when the EU partners realise that there are common European interests that must be defended as staunchly as possible.

That is the lesson of the Evros affair and it must guide the manner in which each crisis is handled from now on.