Thread by @JTPsaropoulos

1/14 Greek-Turkish tension has gone under the radar in Western media but is building up dangerously. #Greece has responded forcefully and eloquently to recent #Turkish provocations in letters to UNSG @antonioguterres and NATO SG @jensstoltenberg

2/14 TR pres. RTErdogan said in a campaign rally on 29.8, "Greece, your occupation of the islands is not our concern. When the time comes, we will do what is necessary. As we say, all of a sudden, we can come overnight.”

3/14 Greece “occupies” no islands. It has respected the territorial delimitations reached in the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923. This also allows a limited military presence on the islands for defensive purposes. Yet last year TR disputed GR sovereignty over its east Aegean islands.

3/14 On 3.9 Erdogan said, “Greece, look at history, go back in time. If you go too far, the price will be heavy. We have one thing to say to Greece: Remember Izmir.” This last was a reference to the torching of Greek & Armenian quarters of the city on 9.9.1922.

4/14 Along with other victorious allies, Greece tried to claim territories in Asia Minor after WW1, following the defeat of the Central Powers Germany, Austria-Hungary and Turkey. Political division at home led to Greece’s defeat in 1922 and the founding of the Turkish republic.

5/14 After the defeat of the Greek army, 1.5mn Greeks who lived in Asia Minor were sent on forced marches to labour camps, or sent to Greece in an exchange of populations. Roughly half perished. Erdogan says the Greeks “are as vile now as they were then.”

6/14 Greece calls these statements “unprovoked, unacceptable and an insult against Greece and the Greek people.” It warns of a rhetorical buildup to justify potential military aggression:

7/14 “For the past few years Türkiye has been building up its revisionist agenda through a propaganda putting in question the entire territorial status quo as established by Treaties…

8/14 “In addition to the above, such statements polarise the situation even further and imbue the Turkish people with hatred, enmity and contempt towards their Greek neighbours…

9/14 “The Turkish leadership has apparently chosen to present future aggression as already prepared and, more importantly, as a justified action on the part of Türkiye. Unless seen in its proper dimensions and properly dealt with by the international community…

10/14 “this Turkish overall attitude risks destabilising our wider region and causing consequences of which the gravity is hard to assess.”

11/14 It is easy to see why Greece is purchasing 4th Gen Rafale fighters, upgrading 83 of its F-16s to Vipers and building 3 Belharra frigates. It is also easy to see the importance of a 2021 defensive alliance with France, underlined by FR FM Catherine Colonna.

12/14 “France is always clear in its solidarity whenever Greek sovereignty is doubted and this will not change,” she said visiting Athens on 6.9.
kathimerini.gr/politics/56202…

13/14 Whether Erdogan wins next year’s election or not, Greece may be headed for some sort of violent reckoning with the entitlements created in the minds of the Turkish people by the Erdogan gov’t, which is looking for distractions from its dire economic mismanagement.

14/14 This is because the entire opposition (except the Kurds) now embraces his expansionist vision. For this reason Greece must learn every diplomatic and military lesson it can from Ukraine.