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PASOK Foreign Policy
In foreign policy, PASOK proved far
more moderate in power than it had been as an opposition party.
Although Papandreou's strident anti-American rhetoric caused friction
with the administration of United States president Ronald W. Reagan,
PASOK was willing to compromise on specific issues such as
continuation of United States bases in Greece, after vigorous
negotiations. Despite his theoretical nonalignment and conciliation of
bętes noires of the West such as Muammar al Qadhafi of Libya, Saddam
Husayn of Iraq, and Yasir Arafat of the Palestine Liberation
Organization, Papandreou balanced Greece's international position by
keeping Greece in NATO and the EC.
In its policy toward Turkey, the PASOK
government stood firm. In 1982 Papandreou became the first Greek prime
minister to visit Cyprus, signaling strong support for the Greek
population of the divided island. In 1984 he mobilized the Greek
military for war when Turkish batteries opened fire on a Greek
destroyer. And in 1987, he once again brought Greece to the brink of
war when Turkey threatened to send an oil exploration vessel into
Greek territorial waters. In 1988 a thaw resulted from a meeting
between Papandreou and Turkey's President Turgut Özal in Davos,
Switzerland, where new avenues of bilateral communication and
consultation were arranged. Soon thereafter, however, the "spirit
of Davos" was strained again by disputes over the treatment of
minorities, air space, and access to Aegean oil.
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