European Politico-economics QA Mega-thread - Page 1374

Athens is reportedly on full alert even for the most extreme scenario on the part of Ankara, given that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is under pressure domestically and resorting to increasingly incendiary rhetoric.

This concern is further augmented by the concentration of refugees and migrants on the Turkish coast, mainly in the areas opposite Chios and Samos. There have been reports about the growing presence of boats in these areas that could be used by migrants arriving on the coast.

The influx of refugees and migrants on the Turkish coast, combined with the rhetoric of Turkish government officials, has led diplomatic and military circles in Athens to dust off previous crisis scenarios.

These include the possibility of migrants landing on an island that Ankara says is of “indefinite ownership” or nearby and Turkey launching an operation to collect them under the pretext that the area is under Ankara’s ​​responsibility for search and rescue.

Turkey has said it challenges the sovereignty of eastern Aegean islands that are militarized.

Refugees and migrants have often been used by Turkey as a tool of pressure on Greece, which in this case often faces not only the geopolitical but also the humanitarian dimension of the issue.

In light of this Greece’s armed forces in the Eastern Aegean continue to move on the basis of an increased degree of vigilance and readiness, in order to react if necessary. However, so far, the main military activity of the Turkish Armed Forces has been the Efes 2022 military exercise which is unfolding within the borders of Turkish territorial waters and without interference, in some cases due to the US participation in it.

Meanwhile, Athens has been active diplomatically to promote Greece’s positions and highlight Turkish aggression. Last week the Foreign Ministry supplied Greece’s embassies and representations abroad with 16 maps from 1972 until the present that show how Turkey’s claims have changed to seek influence over more than half the Aegean Sea.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis also briefed foreign leaders, and showed German Chancellor Olaf Scholz a map of the “Blue Homeland” doctrine espoused by Ankara, which envisions Turkish influence over large swaths of the eastern Mediterranean, highlighting Turkish revisionism.

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday warned Greece to demilitarize islands in the Aegean Sea, saying he was “not joking” and posting tweets in Greek and English, in a marked harshening of rhetoric against Turkey’s neighbor and historic regional rival.

Turkey says Greece has been building a military presence in violation of treaties that guarantee the unarmed status of the Aegean islands. It argues the islands were ceded to Greece on the condition they remained demilitarized.

Athens counters that the islands, which have been garrisoned for decades and lie within close striking distance of a large Turkish landing fleet, can’t be left undefended.

“We invite Greece to stop arming the islands that have non-military status and to act in accordance with international agreements,“ Erdogan said on the final day of military exercises taking place near Izmir, on Turkey’s Aegean coast. “I’m not joking, I’m speaking seriously. This nation is determined.”

Greece and Turkey are NATO allies, but have a history of disputes over a range of issues, including mineral exploration in the eastern Mediterranean and rival claims in the Aegean Sea.

The two countries came close to war three times in the past half century, the last being in 1996 over ownership of an uninhabited eastern Aegean islet. But Ankara has recently been questioning Greece’s sovereignty over large, inhabited Greek islands — Rhodes, Kos and Lesbos, for example, would meet the description of “militarized” islands.

“We warn Greece to stay away from dreams, statements and actions that will lead to regret, as it did a century ago, and to return to its senses,” the Turkish leader said. A hundred years ago, Turkey defeated Greece after a three-year war that saw Greek armies invade western Turkey.

Greece maintains Turkey has deliberately misinterpreted the treaties and says it has legal grounds to defend itself following hostile actions by Ankara, including a long-standing threat of war if Greece extended its territorial waters.

Later Thursday, Erdogan made the rare move of tweeting in Greek and English, saying: “As Turkey will not resign its rights in the Aegean, it will not hesitate either to make use of its rights arising from international treaties on the issue of the islands’ demilitarization.”

Greek government spokesman Giannis Oikonomou commented that Erdogan’s choice of Greek was “notable.”

“Greek is known as the language of reason, freedom and justice,” he said. “The tactics Turkey has chosen do not fall under any of these categories.”

Earlier, Oikonomou said Greece was dealing with Turkish “provocations” with “calm and determination.”

“It is clear to everyone that our country has upgraded its geostrategic and geopolitical footprint as well as its deterrent capacity to be able at any time to defend its national sovereignty and sovereign rights,” he said.

Meanwhile, Erdogan also reiterated Turkey’s determination to launch a new cross-border offensive in Syria with the goal of pushing back Syrian Kurdish militia and creating a 30-kilometer (19-mile) buffer zone. Turkey regards the militia as an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK.

“We will never allow the establishment of terror corridors along our country’s borders, and we will definitely complete the missing parts of our security zone,” the Turkish leader said.

Erdogan continued: “We hope that none of our real allies and friends will oppose our legitimate security concerns.”

Erdogan has said that Turkey’s new offensive in Syria would target the towns of Tall Rifat and Manbij, which lie west of the Euphrates River and from where the Syrian Kurdish fighters launch attacks on Turkish targets.

On June 20 2022 05:01 {CC}StealthBlue wrote:
So Macron will no longer be head of state?

On June 20 2022 05:04 KwarK wrote:

President is not prime minister.

On June 29 2022 03:12 plasmidghost wrote:
Nicola Sturgeon has laid out a plan for a Scotland independence referendum next year. Hell yeah Scotland, cheers from America



https://www.thenational.scot/news/20241027.scottish-independence-nicola-sturgeon-gives-indyref2-date-major-announcement/

https://twitter.com/ScotNational/status/1541777894686474243

On June 29 2022 03:26 WombaT wrote:
Has enough changed in the interim to make this one likely to have a different result?

I suppose we’re a while out yet, to me it feels a little premature and potentially swallowed up with the alteration to normal business that COVID and now Ukraine have caused.

I mean I’d quite like the land of my forefathers untethered from the seemingly now perpetual Tory rule, same with my own land but I’m not sure if they’ll be able to get it over the line this time and that could set things back quite a bit.

On June 29 2022 04:07 plasmidghost wrote:

Going through Scottish Twitter, many people believe that with the new protest law in England being enacted and the general state of the country itself, England is becoming a fascist police state and they want no part of that

On June 29 2022 04:08 RvB wrote:
Leaving the UK will be even worse for Scotland than Brexit is for the UK. England is by far their largest trading partner and they get large subsidies from England to finance their budget deficit. It'd be a disaster.