Raising tensions in the Aegean Sea, Greece and Turkey continue their rivalry, both criticizing each other for Turkey turning away Afghan and Syrian immigrants near the Turkish border. Turkey under 69-year-old President Recep Tayiip Erdogan has been reluctant to take more Mideast and North African immigrants, primarily because the Syrian War to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad took more than million refugees, put into refugee camps in Eastern Turkey. On Oct. 21, Turkey rejected 92 Afghan and Syrian refugees, prompting condemnation by Notis Mitarachin, Greece’s Immigration Minister. “Turkey’s behavior toward 92 immigrants who we rescued at the borders today is a shame for civilization,” said Notis. Turkey called the accusation “groundless and unfounded.” Turkey has been feuding with Greece over several islands ceded to Greece in the Treaty of Lausanne.
Greece and Turkey have longstanding disputes dating back to the battle over Cyprus where the Island was divided into Greek and Turkish regions in 1974. Greeks thought Turkey muscled its way into Cyprus, creating longstanding dispute between the two nations. Meeting with 70-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin in Astana, Kazakhstan Oct. 13, Erogan reminded Putin that how Turkey seized 33% of Cyprus in 1974. We came suddenly one night,” the same phrase used when the Turks beat back the Kurds in Syria in 2016. U.S. officials made too many promises to the Kurds to win their backing going after the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria [ISIS], something that infuriated Erdogan. Erdogan saw the U.S. promising the Kurds a homeland in exchange for help with the battle against Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi before the ISIS leader was killed Oct. 27, 2019 under orders from former President Donald Trump.
Erdogan doesn’t hesitate to threaten Greece, especially over the disputed Aegean islands. Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said that while war would never happen, Erdogan’s attempt to seize Greek-owned islands, “Turkey would recceive a absolutely devastating response,” Mitsotakis. Turkey has far more military resources than Greece and should refrain from threatening Erdogan, knowing that Putin, who’s embroiled in a proxy war with the U.S., would certainly lend help to Turkey. Putin has been involved negotiating an end to the skirmishes between Armenia and Azerbaijan, only recently fighting in the disputed mountainous Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azxerbaijan. Unlike Greece, Turkey has its hand in conflicts in Syria, Nagorno-Karabakah and not in the Aegean with Greece. Erdogan sees Turkey as mini Russia, intimidating smaller countries in the Mideast.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Miitsotakis told Erdogan that he saw no place for armed conflict, especially watching the Ukraine War for the last eight months. “There is no place for imperial visions in the 21 st Centruy, and would be local bullies would have no place,” Mitsotakis said. Greece’s Defense Minister Nikolaos Panagiotopoulos said Turkey’s actions on the islands was destabilizing. Greece claimed it maintained a radar lock on a Turkish fighter jet with an S-300 Russian-built anti-aircraft system, something prohitied by under NATO rules. Greece and Turkey are allies under the NATO defense umbrella, yet feud over various disputes, like immigrants or the Aegean islands. Erdogan and Mitssctakis are up for reelection 2013 and could be posturing to show their countries they defend their respective countries. Most military analysts think Greece and Turkey are bluffing over the Aegean islands.
Turkey and Greece face real economic problems in the inflation and recession sweeping through the European Union. What better way can they divert attention from real problems than to manufacture territorial disputes? “There is a long tradition between the two countries to abuse each other to mobilize especially nationalistic voting bases in both countries, because more and more elections are settled on the basis of very small margins,” s aid Vassilis Ntousas, head of the European operations with German Marshall Fund of the United States. “Greece and Turkey have become much more integrated in the economic and social sense of the word. There is much more trade that flows in both directions, and there are many more people that flow in both directiona, said Kemal Krisci, an analyst with the Brookings Institution. Krisci doesn’t think that Erdogan will push things with Greece to confrontation.
State Department officials are concerned that European socialism could morph into authoritarian, populous regimes like seen with Italy’s new Prime Minister Georgia Meloni. Many analysts think that Hungary’s Viktor Orban and Czech Prime Minister Petr Fial continue to have anti-immigrant sentiment, something that almost broke up the EU in during the long Brexit ordeal that took the U,K. out the EU Jan. 31, 2020. “While few predict actual conflict or perhaps war, the risk linked to an accident are also on the rise,” said Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar. Krisci went further saying the media tends to hype the prospects of confrontation between Greece and Turkey. “There is a whole history of such confrontation that have never escalated into a physical confrontation. It remains at the level of exchange of words and threats,” Krsici said, downplaying any real confrontation.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
