Hellenic European Leadership Council Profile picture
Sep 8, 2022 17 tweets 13 min read Read on X
Germany’s strategic blunders in its relationship with #Russia are currently hurting all of Europe. We take a look at the parallel relationship between #Germany and #Turkey and the real risks this poses for the West. A thread by #theHELC #NoSubsForTurkey 1/17 Image
The German / Turkish relationship dates from before #WWI, when the #YoungTurks turned to Germany as the most plausible international ally for their decomposing Empire. A secret treaty between the two powers was concluded on August 2, 1914 2/17
The German #Kaiser #WilhelmII visited the #OttomanEmpire three times in total, pledging to the Sultan and the '300 million Mohammedans scattered over the globe and revering in him their caliph, that the German Emperor will be and remain at all times their friend' 3/17 Image
Turkey entered WWI by launching a stealthy and unsuccessful raid on the Russian #BlackSea ports in October 1914, as a result of which the #TripleAlliance of Britain, France, and Russia declared War on the Ottomans 4/17 Image
The raid was actually performed by two German warships, the #Goeben and #Breslau, that had hastily been transferred to the Ottomans with their German crews insolently donning Ottoman uniforms and fezzes 5/17 Image
General #Ludendorff stated in his memoirs that the entry of the #Turks into the war allowed the outnumbered #CentralPowers to fight on for two years longer, extending the war to the #MiddleEast and causing enormous bloodshed and suffering 6/17
The two aggressors were decidedly defeated in the ensuing war and both the Kaiser and the Young Turks ended up losing their Empires for good. However, they still managed to add some black pages in the history books before their final defeat 7/17
Otto Liman von Sanders, appointed head of the German military mission to the Ottomans in 1913, embroiled himself in the #Armenian and #GreekGenocide, even going as far as giving direct orders for mass deportations that cost the lives of hundreds of thousands 8/17 Image
Von Sanders was arrested by the British as a war criminal at the end of the war. His disciple Mustapha #Kemal continued the policy of genocide as head of the new Turkish state, unrooting Christian populations that had lived in #AsiaMinor for thousands of years 9/17 Image
Mustapha Kemal became in turn an inspiration for the emerging German #Nazi leaders in the interwar period. #AdolfHitler found the Armenian “solution” of Kemal an instructive precedent for his own plans against the Jews 10/17 Image
#Turkey and #Nazi Germany signed a pact of #friendship on 18 July 1941. Turkey continued to claim neutrality while enabling the Nazis – just like it does for #Putin today - and only declared war on Germany on 23 February 1945, two months before the end of the war 11/17 Image
Post-war German governments rightly distanced themselves from the Prussian militarism and Nazi crimes of the past. One constant has remained though: their proximity to Turkey and its leaders 12/17 Image
#Erdogan’s regime is currently committing ethnic cleansing of the #Kurds in Northern #Syria, has imprisoned record numbers of journalists and members of the opposition, and regularly threatens Germany’s fellow EU members with invasion 13/17 Image
Germany’s former governments have repeatedly provided diplomatic cover for these actions, often operating at odds with the rest of the international community. Germany subsidises the internment of #refugees in #Turkey and supplies critical military equipment to the regime 14/17
#ThyssenKrupp (a major German conglomerate) is currently working on six advanced #submarines for Turkey that threaten to disturb the fragile balance in the Eastern Mediterranean, where states such as Greece, Cyprus and Israel are trying to contain Erdogan #NoSubsForTurkey 15/17 Image
The new German government is showing signs of fresh thinking in terms of geopolitical priorities. Turkey’s double dealings with Russia, political authoritarianism, and outright military threats to Germany’s allies, should at the very least put Turkey on the change agenda 16/17 Image
Major Western democracies such as the #US and #France have realised the unreliability of their Turkish partners, blocked the sale of critical weapons, and supported peaceful nations in the region. The new, wiser Germany will hopefully follow suit #NoSubsForTurkey 17/17 Image

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More from @theHELC

Mar 24
In the second year of the #GreekRevolution, British admiral Hamilton suggested to the de facto leader of the #Greeks, Theodore #Kolokotronis, that the time had come to negotiate with the #Ottomans, with Britain as the mediator. Kolokotronis responded: #theHELC #25March1821 🧵1/6 Image
'We will never do so, now is the time for freedom or death. We, admiral, never negotiated with the #Turks. Many of us were killed, many enslaved, and a few lived free from one generation to the next. Our King was killed, he never negotiated, and his guard continued the war' 2/6
Hamilton was baffled. Who was that king #Kolokotronis was talking about? #Greece had been under the #Ottoman yoke for centuries and most certainly didn’t have a state, let alone a king. 3/6
Read 6 tweets
Jan 12, 2023
There was uproar in #France when the city of #Strasbourg agreed to pay €2.5m towards the construction of a new #mosque by a radical #Turkish #Islamist organization in 2021. But who is #MilliGorus and what are their aims? A thread by #theHELC 1/10
Millî Görüş ("National Vision") is a religious-political movement that found expression in a series of #Islamist parties culminating in #Erdogan’s AKP. It argues that Turkey can develop as a rival to the West, by protecting its core values and trusting in God 2/10
The beginning of the movement dates to a manifesto published in 1969 by Necmettin #Erbakan, the Islamist politician who later became prime minister. Erbakan called for #PanIslamism and warned against the ‘#Zionist and Catholic project’ of the European Common market 3/10
Read 11 tweets
Oct 7, 2022
#Turkey distorting a 100 year old treaty to once again make empty threats of war against #Greece is in the finest tradition of #Putin (and before him #Goebbels). A quick primer and debunking of #Erdogan's inane claims about the #Lausanne treaty 1/13
Context: at the end of the #Greco-Turkish War of 1919-1922, the Greek army, abandoned by its Western Allies and with the #Soviet #Russians openly aiding Turkey, left #Anatolia and retreated to the Greek islands of the Northern Aegean 2/13
The treaty of #Lausanne of 1923 settled matters between the belligerents. The Greek state gave up territories and populations that had been Greek for thousands of years in Asia Minor, #EasternThrace, and #Constantinople, in return for lasting peace and reconstruction 3/13
Read 14 tweets
Aug 10, 2022
The drill ship #AbdulHamidHan, #Erdogan’s latest vanity project in a country where 15 million people suffer from hunger, was launched yesterday. But who was #AbdulHamid after whom the vessel was named? A thread on the #BloodySultan and the #HamidianMassacres by #theHELC 1/12
Abdul Hamid II was Sultan of the #Ottoman Empire from 1876 to 1909. During his reign, unrest amongst his oppressed subjects in the #Balkans and Asia Minor intensified. His barbaric response would culminate in the massacres of #Armenians and #Assyrians of 1894–1896 2/12
After #Turkey’s defeat in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878, it was agreed in the conference of #Berlin that Russia would evacuate the Armenian populated territories of the Ottoman Empire in return for the implementation of reforms to protect the local population 3/12
Read 12 tweets
Jun 10, 2022
Turkey's leaders are taking a break from enabling #Russia against #NATO and ethnic cleansing Syria’s #Kurds to launch absurd claims and empty threats against Greek islands. We take a look at the painful history of Turkish rule on one of them: a thread on #Chios from #theHELC 1/10
The history of the Greeks in Chios goes back more than 3,000 years reaching to #Minoan and #Mycenaean times. Chios is the most likely birthplace of #Homer and had its own coins and democratic parliament by 600 BC. Its famous wine was exported from the Black Sea to #Egypt 2/10
The islanders sided with Athens and then #Alexander the Great against Persia and continued to prosper under first the #Roman and then the Eastern Roman (#Byzantine) Empire. The famous #mosaics of Nea Moni monastery are considered a masterpiece of Byzantine art 3/10
Read 10 tweets
Oct 2, 2021
Protecting Europe’s frontiers with state-of-the-art European technology. A thread on French warplanes in the Hellenic Air Force… #theHELC #France #Rafale #Mirage #HAF
Modern Greek-French relations have deep historical roots going back to the Napoleonic period. In more recent years, Greece’s alliance with France has played a game-changing role in the Hellenic Air Force’s vital mission of defending the airspace of the European Union and NATO.
The recent purchase of 24 state-of-art #Rafale jets is the culmination of a long relationship between the French defence industry and HAF. The procurement of 🇫🇷warplanes in a time of threats from Turkey underlines the deep military and political bonds between the two nations.
Read 9 tweets

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