In politics, in such critical periods, we must be able to sit at the same table and discuss.” Who can disagree with this observation by Foreign Minister Giorgos Gerapetritis about his meeting with his Turkish counterpart, Hakan Fidan, in Brussels?
There is no doubt that “a good climate is needed, tensions must be avoided and international law must be respected”, as Mr Gerapetritis said. And “the European acquis, the sovereignty and sovereign rights of all Member States and the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy must be respected”.
But what was Turkey’s response? “Linking the Cyprus issue to Euro-Turkish relations is not a healthy method and will not bring results,” Fidan said, for example, after the meeting. Simply put? Turkey denies the internationalization of the Cyprus issue, hoping to limit it to a narrow, bilateral Greek-Turkish framework. In this way, it believes that it will be able to convey its positions and forget that the Cyprus issue is a question of invasion and military occupation, which destroys any concept of international law.
But Turkish President Erdoğan was also careful to fully clarify his neo-Ottoman foreign policy after the Brussels meeting.
The “Black Anniversary”
On the occasion of the black anniversary of the Asia Minor disaster, Erdogan, speaking at the graduation ceremony of graduates of the Land Warfare School of the National Defense University, was clear: “He is an ignoramus who thinks that we will be limited to our borders… If we ignore the developments in our region and the geography of our heartland, we are deceiving ourselves. Where we have an expatriate from the Adriatic to the steppes of Asia, then his case is our case. From the Caucasus to Africa, where we have a brotherhis dirt is our dirt toosaid the Turkish president.
Adding emphatically: “Whoever tries to limit Turkey’s horizon to 782,000 square kilometers, then he is definitely a stranger in these lands. We will not allow them to imprison us in shallow waters, we will not pay attention to them… we will not let them. We will think with Turkey in mind, but our vision will include the entire world… From Syria to Northern Iraq, from Libya to Somalia, our armed forces are fulfilling their duties wherever they are assigned,” the Turkish president said, trying to strengthen the image of a Turkey that does not hesitate to show its military power in every corner of the world.
After all, and the head of European diplomacy, Jose Borrellspeaking at the Quo Vadis Europe conference in Santander on 25 August, he highlighted that “growing Russian and Turkish influence in North Africa has derailed the EU’s ‘Mediterranean order’ in the region”.
“We should be worried about what is happening in Africa. The bases along the Libyan coast are no longer European, they belong to Turkey and Russia. This is not the Mediterranean order we imagined,” Borrell said.
Prisoners of geography
How right the outgoing EU High Commissioner for Foreign Policy is. Unfortunately, Turkey has established a neo-Ottoman foreign policy of “conquests” and will not deviate from this approach. And with our country “captive to geography”, things will not improve in terms of Greek-Turkish relations. Despite the temporary lull in Turkish aggression.
“Java-java” Geiton tries to promote his provocative and ahistorical claims with the fantastical vision of restoring a new Ottoman empire.
Erdogan said it clearly in his speech at the Presidential Palace in Ankara on the 102nd anniversary of the Asia Minor Disaster: “Our army, which remained on the defensive and whose offensive power was weakened after the Siege of Vienna, has changed its bad luck… With a few exceptions, the retreat that lasted 250 years is over,” Erdogan said, signaling new achievements.
Do you have any questions? Any doubts perhaps? For Erdogan’s “dirty” ones!