For some time now, our neighbor Greece has been aggressively pursuing a policy of re-expansion. This situation is actually not new. It is well remembered how Greece, after gaining its independence, expanded and expanded its territories against the Ottoman Empire with foreign support within the framework of its aggressive policy based on the “Megali Idea” doctrine.
Greece, which was supported by the United Kingdom to impose the Treaty of Sèvres on the Turks, was thought to have given up its expansionist policies and its aggressive “Megali Idea” doctrine after the great defeat it suffered after attacking Anatolia immediately after the First World War.
However, immediately after the Second World War, Cyprus brought Greece’s expansionist and aggressive policies back to the fore. When the Greek-Greek duo realized that they could not immediately unite Cyprus with Greece and achieve “enosis”, Athens embarked on new games and the Zurich-London Agreements were signed and the Republic of Cyprus was established based on the political equality of the two communities on the island.
However, due to the aggressive policies of the Greek-Greek duo and their plans to exterminate the Turkish Cypriots, the Republic of Cyprus was very short-lived and collapsed in 1963. It is truly exemplary that Western countries turned a blind eye to the Greek-Greek duo’s aggression and implementation of their plans to take over Cyprus by ignoring all international law, the principle of loyalty, and the London-Zurich Agreements.
Athens’ expansionist-aggressive policies were not limited to Cyprus. From the 1970s onwards, Greece began to implement its expansionist policies in the seas, aiming to turn the Aegean Sea into a Greek lake by ignoring Turkey’s long coastline and trying to disrupt the Lausanne balance established in the Aegean.
Since the 1970s, Turkey has taken action against Greece’s games in the Aegean Sea, opposed Greece’s attempts to disrupt the balance established in the Aegean Sea by the Treaties of Lausanne and Paris, and acted from the point of view that the Aegean should be a sea of cooperation between Turkey and Greece and that Greece should share the Aegean Sea with Turkey.
Greece’s policies of confining Turkey to its territorial waters and airspace in the Aegean Sea and claiming the entire Aegean Sea have not yielded results so far. Greece’s armament of the Aegean islands left to it by the Treaties of Lausanne and Paris, in violation of these agreements, and its claim of 10-mile airspace in the airspace over the Aegean Sea are completely contrary to international law.
Greece’s claim that international law is in its favor in the Aegean Sea is completely untrue. If Greece really wants to resolve the problems in the Aegean Sea through the law, in the International Court of Justice, it should recognize that all the problems in the Aegean Sea are interconnected, that it cannot choose between them, and that all of these problems should be taken to the International Court of Justice in agreement with Turkey as a whole.
Without Greece and its supporters in Western countries recognizing the interconnectedness of all the problems in the Aegean Sea, it is obvious that they cannot be resolved through international law. It is indeed very unfortunate that they are trying to interpret international law, even the principle of fidelity, in their own way.
It is clear from the first articles of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, which Greece and its supporters constantly try to refer to, that all rights under this treaty can only be exercised within the framework of equity, and Greece’s position in the Aegean Sea has nothing to do with equity. It is also clear that the Aegean Sea is a semi-closed sea as defined in the Convention. Here again, Greece adopts a selective attitude as it wishes and ignores Turkey and its rights on the other side of the Aegean Sea.
Greece’s expansionist-aggressive policies in violation of international law are not limited to the Aegean Sea. Since the 2000s, Greece has started to extend these policies to the Eastern Mediterranean. It was also in these years that Greece came up with the Seville Map, the validity of which is today rejected by almost everyone, including the EU and the US. The purpose of the Seville Map was to establish a maritime border between Greece, which is not actually an Eastern Mediterranean country, and the island of Cyprus, ignoring Turkey’s long coasts in the Mediterranean.
The Greek-Greek duo, acting from the false idea and point of view that Enosis was realized within the EU and that the Turkish Cypriots could somehow be exterminated with the support they received from the EU and the US, took action to confine Turkey almost within its territorial waters and airspace in the Mediterranean after the Aegean Sea. There are similarities and differences between the situation in the Aegean Sea and the new situation in the Eastern Mediterranean created by the Greek-Greek duo.
If Israel and other countries, as well as Greece, realize as soon as possible that no project in the Eastern Mediterranean can be realized without Turkey’s support and cooperation, this will prevent unnecessary instability and crises in the Eastern Mediterranean and pave the way for cooperation. On the other hand, the Greek Cypriot Administration of Cyprus is making attempts to explore natural gas in the continental shelf where it claims its rights without taking into account the rights of the Turkish Cypriots. There is no possibility of utilizing the riches in the seas around the island without solving the Cyprus problem.
Turkey has declared its determination to protect its rights and the rights of Turkish Cypriots in the Eastern Mediterranean at various times. As in the Aegean Sea, Turkey will not allow the foreign-backed Greek-Greek duo to squeeze it into its territorial waters in the Eastern Mediterranean. Until Turkey’s rights in the Aegean Sea and the Eastern Mediterranean, where it has a very long coastline, are recognized, there is no possibility of stability in these seas.
In Greece, the Mitsotakis-Dendias duo seems to have chosen the continuation of expansionist-aggressive policies and armament instead of good-faith talks with Turkey and the resolution of problems. Greece has recently announced that it will purchase 7.5 billion dollars worth of arms from France. Although it says otherwise, the Mitsotakis-Dendias duo is thus fueling an arms race in the region and trying to win the support of the racist anti-Turkey right in Greece.
History shows us that without direct foreign support, Greece has no chance on the battlefield against Turkey, and this time the Mitsotakis-Dendias duo is transferring the money that Greece has borrowed to France for arms supplies.
At the same time, history shows us how Greece, with external support, expanded against the Ottoman Empire even in places where the Greek population was minority or non-existent, and warns us that we should be especially careful about direct foreign aid to Greece and Greece’s foreign extensions and connections in Western countries.
Naturally, it is in the interest of the people of the two neighboring countries to cooperate, create a positive agenda and solve their problems. The 63rd round of what used to be called exploratory talks, now known as consultative talks, is scheduled to take place in Ankara on October 6. Most recently, the Secretary General of the United Nations and Cypriot leaders Tatar and Anastiades met in New York. However, no progress has been made towards a solution of either the Cyprus or the maritime issues and no common ground has been established for a solution.
The reason for this situation is Greece’s return to its expansionist-aggressive policies, again with foreign support, and the Greek-Greek duo’s persistent policy of non-settlement. Greece is trying to expand on land by annexing Cyprus and on the seas in the Aegean Sea and the Eastern Mediterranean by ignoring the rights of Turkey and the Turkish Cypriots.
Turkey’s peaceful and reasonable proposals, such as a solution in Cyprus, the Eastern Mediterranean Conference and a collective approach to maritime issues, are put on the back burner and ignored by the Greek-Greek duo and their foreign supporters and their extensions in the EU and the US. In this situation, Turkey needs to formulate its foreign policy on the basis that the real threat to its permanent and long-term interests comes from the west, from expansionist, aggressive and intransigent Greece.
