Wednesday, April 18, 2018

Are Greece And Turkey Inching Toward War?

Alexis Tsipras and Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a file photo. Ekathimerini

Yiannis Baboulias, Foreign Policy: Greece and Turkey Are Inching Toward War

Populists in both countries are deepening a rare military crisis between NATO allies.

The relationship between Greece and Turkey has never been easy. The neighboring countries have been at war with each other several times in the 20th century and were close to military conflict over the Greek islet Imia in 1996, before the United States stepped in to avert disaster.

The NATO allies are now at the brink again, goaded by populists on both sides — and this time, Washington is nowhere to be found.

On Monday, a Greek-Turkish confrontation rekindled old memories. Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, during an event in Ankara, claimed that the Turkish coast guard had removed a Greek flag from an islet near the island of Fournoi, after it was placed there earlier by three Greeks. The Hellenic National Defense General Staff responded that no Turkish boat had been seen in the area in the last 48 hours; the mayor of Fournoi then visited the islet and reported that the Greek flag was still there.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: This is becoming deadly .... A ‘secret war’ between Turkey and Greece just turned deadly after a long history of dogfights over the Aegean Sea (Brinkwire).

More News On The Growing Tensions Between Greece And Turkey

Greece, Turkey in ‘Undeclared War’ in the Aegean -- Greek Reporter
Alternate Defense Minister: Greece, Turkey in “undeclared war” -- IBNA
The undeclared war over the Aegean sea -- SOFREP
The ‘Secret’ Dogfights Above The Aegean Sea We Rarely Hear About -- Task & Purpose/Business Insider

6 comments:

someone said...

Tensions between the two have flared up before but i doubt Erdogan is gonna risk all out war before the election.Afterwards who knows.

Anonymous said...

Hmmm, who does Russia back on this one???

Stephen Davenport said...

Erdogan is gotten extremely aggressive over the past year or so, fighting anyone and everyone. Probably something to do with the snap election he just called.

Anonymous said...

Power fills vacuums. The US is seen as a retreating global power so the Turks are stepping to fill the void. No surprise long suppressed territorial claims are flaring up. Turkey has it in for Greece, Syria, the Kurds and evidently US forces protecting the Kurds. They think big.

kidd said...

Go for it

kidd said...

Attack