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Nikos Dendias
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Nikos Dendias
Nikolaos "Nikos" Dendias (Greek: Νικόλαος Δένδιας; born 7 October 1959) is a Greek lawyer and politician of the conservative New Democracy party who has been serving as Minister for National Defence in the government of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis since 2023. He is a Member of the Hellenic Parliament for Athens, and previously served as Minister for National Defence from November 2014 to January 2015 and as Minister for Foreign Affairs from July 2019 to May 2023.
Dendias was born in Corfu in 1959, but his ancestry is from the island of Paxos. 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.
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. He was elected as an MP for Corfu in the Greek parliament in the 2004, 2007, 2009 and June 2012 elections.
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. 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. 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. Also, Dendias assigned the police antiterrorism unit to probe the activities of Greece's neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party and proposed a law that could block state funding for party.
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.
From 9 July 2019 to 26 May 2023 Dendias served as the Foreign Minister of Greece in Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis's New Democracy-led government 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.
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".
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."
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Nikos Dendias
Nikolaos "Nikos" Dendias (Greek: Νικόλαος Δένδιας; born 7 October 1959) is a Greek lawyer and politician of the conservative New Democracy party who has been serving as Minister for National Defence in the government of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis since 2023. He is a Member of the Hellenic Parliament for Athens, and previously served as Minister for National Defence from November 2014 to January 2015 and as Minister for Foreign Affairs from July 2019 to May 2023.
Dendias was born in Corfu in 1959, but his ancestry is from the island of Paxos. 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.
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. He was elected as an MP for Corfu in the Greek parliament in the 2004, 2007, 2009 and June 2012 elections.
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. 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. 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. Also, Dendias assigned the police antiterrorism unit to probe the activities of Greece's neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party and proposed a law that could block state funding for party.
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.
From 9 July 2019 to 26 May 2023 Dendias served as the Foreign Minister of Greece in Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis's New Democracy-led government 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.
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".
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."
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