Nikos Dendias

Nikolaos (Nikos) Dendias (Greek: Νικόλαος Δένδιας; born 7 October 1959 in Corfu) is a Greek lawyer and politician of the conservative New Democracy party. He is a Member of the Hellenic Parliament for Corfu, and was Minister for National Defence from November 2014 to January 2015. As of 2019, he is the current Foreign Minister of Greece.

Nikolaos Dendias
Νικόλαος Δένδιας
Minister for Foreign Affairs
Assumed office
July 9, 2019
Prime MinisterKyriakos Mitsotakis
Preceded byGeorgios Katrougalos
President of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe
In office
15 May 2020 – 18 November 2020
Preceded byDavid Zalkaliani
Succeeded byHeiko Maas
Minister for Justice
In office
January 8, 2009 – October 7, 2009
Preceded bySotirios Hatzigakis
Succeeded byHaris Kastanidis
Minister for Public Order and Citizen Protection
In office
June 21, 2012 – June 10, 2014
Preceded byEleftherios Oikonomou
Succeeded byVassilis Kikilias
Minister for Development and Competitiveness
In office
June 10, 2014 – November 3, 2014
Preceded byKostis Chatzidakis
Succeeded byKonstantinos Skrekas
Minister for National Defence
In office
November 3, 2014 – January 27, 2015
Preceded byDimitris Avramopoulos
Succeeded byPanos Kammenos
Personal details
Born (1959-10-07) 7 October 1959
Corfu, Greece
Political partyNew Democracy
Alma materNational and Kapodistrian University of Athens
University College London
London School of Economics

Early life and education

Dendias was born in Corfu in 1959, but his family hails from the island group of Paxoi.[1] He went to school in the Athens College, received a degree in law from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, a Master of Laws in Maritime and Insurance Law from the University College London and in Criminology from the London School of Economics.[1]

Political career

A practising lawyer, Dendias has been active in New Democracy since 1978, first as a member of ND's student wing, DAP-NDFK and later as a party functionary in the Youth Organisation of New Democracy.[1] He was elected as an MP for Corfu in the Greek parliament in the 2004, 2007, 2009 and June 2012 elections.[1]

On 8 January 2009, Dendias was named as Minister for Justice in the second cabinet of Kostas Karamanlis, serving briefly until the cabinet's resignation on 7 October 2009, following ND's defeat in the elections of 4 October.[1][2] In the coalition cabinet of Antonis Samaras, formed after the June 2012 elections, he has first held the post of Minister for Public Order and Citizen Protection (21 June 2012 – 10 June 2014). During his time in office, he was confronted with increasing political and anti-immigrant violence.[3] His agency was the subject of criticism over refusing asylum to Syrian refugees and detaining other migrants that flock to its borders under “unacceptable” conditions.[4] Also, Dendidas assigned the police antiterrorism unit to probe the activities of Greece’s neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party[5] and proposed a law that could block state funding for party.[6]

In two 2014 reshuffles, Dendias became Minister for Development and Competitiveness (10 June – 3 November 2014), from 3 November 2014 to 27 January 2015, and later Minister for National Defence.[1][7]

Dendias during his meeting with the President of Tunisia, Kais Saied.

Since 9 July 2019 Dendias has been serving as the Foreign Minister of Greece in Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis's New Democracy-led government[8] which won the 2019 Greek legislative election. In August 2019, Dendias summoned the Turkish ambassador to “express Greece’s deep discontent” with the arrival of sixteen boats carrying about 650 people from Turkey on Greece’s Lesbos island.[9]

In October 2019, Dendias condemned Turkey's invasion of Syria, stating that "Turkey is making a big mistake". Furthermore, about Turkey's plans for the creation of a safe zone in Northern Syria for the Syrian refugees to be resettled, at the expense of the local Kurdish population he stated that it "is illegal since the resettlement of immigrants must comply with some basic principles: to be voluntary and dignified. [...] Therefore, what Turkey does, goes against human rights".[10]

There is a long-standing dispute between Turkey and Greece in the Aegean Sea. Dendias said that "Turkey is the only (party) responsible for the escalation of tension in the eastern Mediterranean, and it must immediately leave the Greek continental shelf."[11]

References
  1. Βιογραφικό (in Greek). dendias.gr. Retrieved 14 December 2014.
  2. Κυβέρνησις ΚΩΝΣΤΑΝΤΙΝΟΥ Α. ΚΑΡΑΜΑΝΛΗ - Από 19.9.2007 έως 7.10.2009 (in Greek). General Secretariat of the Greek Government. Retrieved 14 December 2014.
  3. Kerin Hope (June 9, 2014), Greece names Gikas Hardouvelis finance minister Financial Times.
  4. Renee Maltezou (May 14, 2013), EU commissioner criticizes Greece for refusing Syrians asylum Reuters.
  5. Kerin Hope (October 11, 2013), Greek police ‘infiltrated’ by Golden Dawn Financial Times.
  6. George Georgiopoulos (September 22, 2013), Greece mulls law that could cut off Golden Dawn state funding Reuters.
  7. Κυβέρνησις ΑΝΤΩΝΙΟΥ Κ. ΣΑΜΑΡΑ - Από 21.06.2012 έως 26.01.2015 (in Greek). General Secretariat of the Greek Government. Retrieved 28 January 2015.
  8. "Νέο υπουργικό συμβούλιο: Αυτός είναι ο νέος υπουργός Εξωτερικών Νίκος Δένδιας" (in Greek). CNN. Retrieved 8 July 2019.
  9. Karolina Tagaris (August 30, 2019), Greece sees first mass arrival of migrant boats in three years Politico Europe.
  10. "Dendias: Turkey in Syria is making a big mistake (original: Δένδιας: Η Τουρκία στη Συρία κάνει μεγάλο λάθος)". Eleutheros Typos. 10 October 2019.
  11. "EU urges Turkey to 'deescalate' energy dispute with Greece". Associated Press. 14 August 2020.
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