It is unacceptable for a head of state to openly tell his neighbor that they can attack him by surprise every night, that they can claim territories
Tensions between Greece and Turkey date back to the Greek war of independence against the Turks in 1827. The secular confrontation peaked when the Greeks tried to take advantage of the breakup of the Ottoman sultanate to conquer the former Ionia, i.e. the territories of Anatolia, where the Greeks had settled since ancient times. However, they were crushed by Mustafa Kemal ‘Ataturk’. The Greek communities of Ionia, which had existed for nearly three millennia, were wiped out or wiped out. The Smyrna massacre was one of the worst.
The Cold War and the common Soviet threat have not resolved the enmity, as the Cyprus crisis in 1975 showed.
The current crisis seems to stem from small and trivial matters, such as the endless fights between two very prickly neighbors: what if you harassed one of my ships … what if you send planes to violate my airspace … what if you militarize islands … that if you target our planes with your anti-aircraft radars … and a long and tedious etcetera. Enough to overburden diplomats, but looking behind the trickle of headlines, there doesn’t seem to be a solid reason for a brawl. The gas fields actually found around Cyprus are worth less than the cost of a war.
In the current crisis, Greece is not without fault, as the government maintains territorial water claims that in many cases would force Turks – or tourists – off the Aegean coast to bathe on the beach with passports in their mouths, as they are only a few meters from move the coast to risk bumping into a Greek patrol boat. However, it is the Turkish government that is most aggressive.
Turkey’s ever-tempered President Recep Tayip Erdogan has been alternating accusations, victimizations and horrific threats for weeks. It is unacceptable for a head of state to openly tell the neighbor that they can attack him by surprise every night, that they can claim territories, or that they can save the Izmir massacre from the trunk of memories exactly a century ago, as a way of provoke terror. That is the behavior of ‘The Godfather’, not of a government leader, who is considered responsible and measured in his public appearance.
The Greek response is currently defensive: keep a close eye on Turkish activities, keep their radars on alert, etc. All these intolerable provocations for Erdogan. The foreign minister is adding to the confusion by launching puzzling sentences and warning Greece on Monday: “If you go on an adventure on behalf of others, you will suffer.” Which others? This is a strictly bilateral conflict, although it may involve third parties later on.
It must be remembered that the list of disagreements between Erdogan and the rest of NATO is very long, that Erdogan has not yet unblocked the accession of Sweden and Finland to NATO and that, therefore, France has already made it fight, it will be for the Greeks, and there is little doubt that this will be the general attitude. But in the end it is not seen that Turkey is concentrating troops, nor what gains it could get from a conflict.
The tentative conclusion is that Erdogan is acting impulsively and thoughtlessly, with no potential benefit other than fueling Turkish nationalism with electoral intent.
Source: La Verdad
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