The goal of the present collective volume is to position the European Union Summit in December 1999 in Helsinki in relation to two particularly noteworthy achievements: the accession of Cyprus to the EU and the initiation of the resolution of the long-standing Greek-Turkish confrontation within a specific timeframe and in accordance with the rules of international law.

The personal testimonies of the most significant living protagonists who inspired, drafted, and implemented the most successful strategy of Greece towards Turkey hold particular value for the historian of the future who will attempt to understand, and primarily to explain, one of the few bright moments of Greek foreign policy in the post-dictatorship era.

The publication of this collective volume on the Helsinki strategy coincides with the fortieth anniversary of Greece's accession to the European Community; the undeniable first bright moment of Greek foreign policy.

Indeed, it was Greece's participation in the European Union and Turkey's genuine interest in becoming a candidate for accession that led, at the end of the first post-Cold War decade, to the adoption of the Helsinki strategy, with the European Union playing a crucial role.

Today, twenty-one years after Helsinki, the "European factor," although significantly weakened, still remains a useful tool in managing an increasingly "difficult" Turkey.

A fundamental prerequisite for the optimal utilization of this factor is certainly not the re-establishment of the "autistic" policy of inertia and immobility of the past, but the undertaking of political initiatives that will allow the development of a comprehensive strategy to address Turkey.

On the anniversary of 200 years since the Greek Revolution, the example of the Helsinki strategy reminds us that Greece can, by acting as a modern European state, overcome its fearful syndromes and, with vision, plan, and confidence, achieve significant victories on the international stage.