Turkey Greece Main Reason conflict Explained
Why Turkey, Greece remain on collision course over Aegean islands
The two NATO allies are still in a dispute over islands in the Aegean Sea. In particular, Turkey rejects what it calls a “militarisation” of some islands by Greece.Hasan Gogus, former Turkish ambassador to Greece and Austria, told Al Jazeera that Turkey’s stance is valid.“We have several disputes with Greece in the Aegean Sea,
such as the width of territorial waters,
delimitation of the continental shelf,
demilitarisation of islands or length of airspace.
While all issues are interrelated, Greece only acknowledges the existence of the continental shelf dispute,” he said.“Most of the Greek islands in the Aegean Sea are in close proximity to the Turkish mainland, such as Kastellorizo or Kos. Those islands were given to Greece [under the 1947 Paris Peace Treaty] on the condition of demilitarisation. However, Greece violates this provision,” said Gogus.
Two years ago, the sides came to the brink of military conflict as tensions rose over energy resources in the eastern Meditarennean. Since then, even diplomatic rapprochement seemed conceivable.
However, Ankara’s rhetoric changed drastically after Greece’s Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis visited the United States last month and called on Washington to reconsider arms sales to Turkey.An affront, in Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s view.
The Turkish leader announced he would not meet again the Greek side until an “honest politician” was in front of him.Since then, the dispute has spiralled, including a large-scale Turkish military manoeuvre, which Erdogan attended. In fact, his appearance made global headlines when he indirectly threatened war.Not only did Erdogan warn Greece of “catastrophic consequences”,
but urged his neighbour to “avoid dreams, statements and actions that it would regret”.“I’m not joking,” Erdogan said.Despite the rhetoric from Ankara, Greece, thus far, has not yet ceased diplomatic efforts.“Although the general media discourse in Greece remains very hostile towards Turkey, the response by the Greek government was relatively muted,”
Papadimitriou said“The possibility of a Greek-Turkish conflict also arises from internal dynamics in Turkey, if, for instance, the Greek-Turkish relations become salient among Turkish voters. Forces in favour or against Erdogan may want to use conflict to boost or dent his popularity.“However, the hope is that NATO,
the US, the military deterrence from both sides along with Erdogan’s rationalism about his own political survival will prevent an open conflict,” Zartaloudis said.
Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/features/20...
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