Athens sends the Turkish provocations to NATO, the UN and the Security Council
In the wake of the unprecedented statements emanating from Turkish officials in recent days, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nikos Dendiasin addition to immediately informing the European partners, including HR/AE Borrell and the US last Saturday, he immediately sends relevant letters to all Security Council Members, the UN Secretary General, as well as the UN Secretary General. NATO.
In said letters, according to diplomatic sources, these statements of Turkish officials will be listed.
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The Greek side considers that the text of these statements is so outrageous that any comment is unnecessary.
The foreign minister also thanked his Czech counterpart Jan Lipavský for the reaction of the Czech Presidency of the Council of the EU, which called the recent Turkish statements “unacceptable” and “not at all helpful”.
“One of the goals of the Czech Republic is to promote the EU-Turkey dialogue. The unacceptable threat of the EU member states, such as the one against Greece in the recent public speech of President Erdogan, is not at all helpful in this regard,” he says characteristically.
One of #CZPRES the aim is to promote the EU-Turkey dialogue. The unacceptable threat of EU member states, such as the one addressed to Greece in President Erdogan’s recent public speech, is extremely useless in this regard.
— Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic (@CzechMFA) September 4, 2022
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Ankara is off limits
The truth is that, in recent times, the public rhetoric of Turkish officials – including Recep Tayyip Erdogan – has gone out of bounds, which is obvious to everyone.
Athens’ strategic choice not to engage in statement objections with the Turks does not lessen the concern, as Erdogan and his government lash out at Greeks on a daily basis, while issuing direct threats to Greece’s sovereignty by threatening a new 1922.
All of this, of course, is primarily viewed as graphic, but it cannot be underestimated that Greece and Cyprus are the only countries around Turkey that have been exempted from Erdogan’s… charm operation.
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Why is Erdogan escalating?
There are many reasons why the neighboring country is intensifying its aggressive rhetoric. It was no coincidence that Turkey remembered the S-300s in Crete and tried to photograph them, or that Turkish President Erdogan said that his country is a worthy member of NATO and Greece is not.
Among the many reasons, the international expert, Alexandros Despotopoulos, points out that Turkey has realized that Greece’s role in the alliance has been upgraded.
“In any case, we are going through a period when Turkey is pressuring us on various issues and within this pressure NATO is also joining, because Greece’s position in this has been upgraded a lot, because the relations with the Americans have been related and at the same time it has degrade Turkey’s position in the alliance,” he said.
The neighboring country, as Mr. Despotopoulos says, had the advantage of controlling the Bosphorus Straits with the US-NATO always showing interest in controlling them especially in terms of Russia’s descent into warm seas. But this particular advantage has…faded because of Ankara’s good relations with the Kremlin.
“Turkey has always had the advantage of controlling the Straits, and it is of great interest to the US to have Turkey in NATO to control the Straits, that is, to control Russia’s descent into the Mediterranean. But Turkey is losing this to a certain extent because of Ankara’s close relationship with the Kremlin,” the internationalist told voria.gr, adding that an advantage that has now been lost for Turkey was the position it had in Middle East issues.
“The second thing that has degraded Turkey’s position – once it was its strong card – was the Middle East. Turkey used to be very powerful in NATO because it was its player in the Middle East. Now that the region’s oil is not the fuel that drives the American – and the European economy to a large extent, but natural gas, its role has been downgraded,” he said.
At the same time, and while Turkey is losing the potential of its advantages, Greece is being upgraded both energetically and strategically.
“Greece’s energy role has been upgraded, especially in relation to the Americans, due to the reception of American LNG and the reception stations that have been built. At the same time, our role has also been upgraded due to the support of NATO action in Eastern Europe through the multi-year defense agreement with the USA and the utilization of the port of Alexandroupoli. In other words, the security of Eastern Europe in terms of NATO interventions at the moment is largely based on the port of Alexandroupolis,” he said.
Thus, as Mr. Despotopoulos estimates, President Erdogan sees that in NATO “where Turkey was the favorite child and especially of the Americans at the moment – even though it does not play an important role – Greece plays a special role and this bothers him”.
“To understand how the relations are at the moment between Greece, Europe and the USA, which also advance the relations with NATO, if Greece wanted and had the money to buy the F35s, it could get them, while Turkey is struggling still to acquire F 16”, said the internationalist characteristically.
At the same time, he points out that Turkey is under considerable pressure in relation to NATO and the Russian S 400 missiles and for this reason he is trying to raise the issue with the S 300 missiles that Greece has.
“The Turkish president is now acrobatic in extreme situations when he openly reveals the possibility of Turkey’s withdrawal or expulsion from NATO. Otherwise, “we want more from the Greeks” made no sense, he said.
Finally, there is the reason for the so-called internal consumption, which is none other than the people of Turkey. The country is in an extremely difficult economic trajectory and the society is facing issues of problems.
“Regarding this specific moment, let’s not forget that it is the month when the Turks celebrate the 100th anniversary of the establishment of their state. It started on August 30, Victory Day, (which celebrates the victory of the Turkish army over the Greek forces in 1922 near Afyon Karahisar). This month we should be prepared for extreme and incendiary statements that will intensify” concluded Mr. Despotopoulos.