The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Dispute over Aegean islands: Erdogan threatens Europe with the next war

2022-06-15T10:51:40.211Z


Dispute over Aegean islands: Erdogan threatens Europe with the next war Created: 06/15/2022, 12:42 p.m By: Georg Anastasiadis The Turkish threats against Greece - commented by Georg Anastasiadis. © Ebrahim Noroozi/AP/dpa/Klaus Haag Ankara lays claim to Greek islands, Turkish fighter bombers penetrate Greek airspace daily. Erdogan's threats sound increasingly shrill. A commentary by Georg Anast


Dispute over Aegean islands: Erdogan threatens Europe with the next war

Created: 06/15/2022, 12:42 p.m

By: Georg Anastasiadis

The Turkish threats against Greece - commented by Georg Anastasiadis.

© Ebrahim Noroozi/AP/dpa/Klaus Haag

Ankara lays claim to Greek islands, Turkish fighter bombers penetrate Greek airspace daily.

Erdogan's threats sound increasingly shrill.

A commentary by Georg Anastasiadis.

Munich - It wasn't long ago that the conservative government in Athens - also from Berlin - had to listen to critical questions about how it could be that poor Greece of all people was investing so much money in national defense.

Prime Minister Mitsotakis answered succinctly: "Because Turkey is our neighbor and not Denmark."

The fact that Athens' assessment of the situation in dealing with dictators was more realistic than that of many other European countries long before the outbreak of the Ukraine war is shown in a brutal manner by Turkish President Erdogan's new warnings: He is threatening more and more openly to attack the Greek islands in the East Aegean , including Rhodes and Kos.

Dispute over Aegean islands: Berlin and Athens are in the same boat

Erdogan, who is under pressure because of the severe economic crisis and the approaching presidential election, can do anything to distract himself from his domestic political problems - even a war against NATO ally Greece.

Turkish fighter jets are already penetrating Greek airspace on a daily basis.

It is therefore good that Chancellor Scholz is now listening to Athens' concerns on the spot.

Berlin and Athens are in the same boat when it comes to Turkey: an indispensable part of Turkey's threats is always to open the floodgates for migrants.

They are not drawn to Greece, but to Central Europe, but the conservative government keeps its promise not to simply “wave the immigrants through”.

Anyone visiting the Greek metropolises of Athens and Thessaloniki these days will see how badly the country is already suffering from the many migrants stranded in the country.

In order to damage the neighboring country even more, Erdogan doesn't even have to throw bombs: His threats of war are enough to drive away tourists, whose money the country is so desperately dependent on after its financial crisis.

This, too, is a form of warfare that calls for a clear European response.

Erdogan on Greece: "Don't get involved in a dance with Turkey"

The Turkish President has announced that he will end bilateral talks with Greece.

At an AKP gathering in Ankara, he said he had instructed his foreign minister to halt high-level Strategy Council meetings with Greece.

Erdogan was outraged by a Greek warning against arms sales to Turkey during a visit to Washington.

However, Greece said it was still interested in a dialogue with Turkey.



Source: merkur

All news articles on 2022-06-15

You may like

News/Politics 2024-02-18T11:11:45.667Z
News/Politics 2024-01-30T12:30:20.342Z

Trends 24h

News/Politics 2024-03-27T16:45:54.081Z

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.