Alexandroupoli to become US naval base: Greek media

Yorgo Kırbaki - ATHENS

The U.S. aims to transform the Alexandroupoli port, which it has used for the shipment of weapons and personnel to the Balkans and Europe in recent years, into a military naval base, the Greek media has claimed.

It was alleged that the goal is for the U.S. companies to win the tender for the Alexandroupolis port, whose privatization process has been initiated, and to expand the port so that the U.S. Arleigh Burke-class destroyers and warships of similar size can dock.

According to the Greek daily Kathimerini, the U.S. conveyed its plans to the Greek authorities on various occasions, primarily by high-ranking soldiers.

Within the framework of the defense cooperation agreement, Greece allocated the Yanuli headquarters in Alexandroupoli, just 40 kilometers from Türkiye, as a base to the U.S. last year.

In the quarters, facilities with a capacity of 300-400 people are being built to accommodate the U.S. soldiers who use the port to go to the Balkans and European countries.

Türkiye is closely following the military mobilization of the U.S. troops in Alexandroupoli but it is not about an intense deployment, sources from the Defense Ministry said earlier.

The port of Alexandroupoli is used principally by travelers as there are daily services to the islands of Samothrace and Lemnos. Due to its strategic location on NATO’s eastern flank, it has important military logistical significance.

U.S. destroyers can dock in the major naval base of the Hellenic Navy and NATO at Souda Bay in Crete.

The base serves as the second largest, in numbers of warships harbored, naval base of the Hellenic Navy and the largest and most prominent naval base for NATO in the eastern Mediterranean Sea.

Additionally, it features the only deep-water port in Southern Europe and the Mediterranean Sea that is suitable and capable of maintaining the largest aircraft carriers.

Kathimerini pointed out that the U.S. are closely interested in the construction of a new facility at the base in Crete, which will enable the deployment of large unmanned aerial vehicles and F-35s.

The paper also stated that the U.S. will install “maritime awareness domain” radars in the Aegean in order to better monitor the activities of Russian warships in the Eastern Mediterranean.

The Arleigh Burke-class of guided missile destroyer is named after Admiral Arleigh Burke, an American destroyer officer in World War II and later chief of naval operations.

The lead ship, USS Arleigh Burke, was commissioned during Admiral Burke’s lifetime.

Meanwhile, the Greek weekly Real News wrote that the Greek government has decided to establish the “Central Communications Administration” to operate as a propaganda unit against Türkiye.

The paper alleged that Kontantinos Kutras, the former Greek consul in New York, was recommended to head the unit, and said, “The goal is to respond to every claim of Türkiye in the field of communication.”