Turkey Creating New Tensions with Greece and the US
Relations between Washington and Ankara have already deteriorated significantly under Erdogan — as dramatically emphasized by America’s absolutely correct refusal to turn over to Erdogan the man he says is behind Turkey’s 2016 coup attempt, Fethullah Gülen, a Muslim cleric who exiled himself to Pennsylvania almost 20 years ago, as well as by the escalating imbroglio over detained U.S. pastor Andrew Brunson, who is apparently being held as a hostage to force the U.S. to extradite Gülen back to Turkey.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Wess Mitchell recently called Greece, “an anchor of stability in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Western Balkans.”
Under President Trump, the signs keep growing that the U.S. is more and more likely to see things Greece’s way.
During his state visit to Greece in 2017, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made a forceful request that Greece agree to re-negotiate the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne. Pictured: Erdogan and Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras in Athens on December 7, 2017. (Photo by Milos Bicanski/Getty Images)
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s June 24 re-election seems to be leading to heightened tensions between Turkey and Greece. Furthermore, in an eventual confrontation between these two NATO member states, Turkey’s reported interest in purchasing air-defense missiles and fighter jets from Russia, underscored by Turkey’s continued detention of American Christian Pastor Andrew Brunson and the U.S. imposition of sanctions on Turkish officials (as well as Turkish counter-sanctions), may well cause Washington to favor Greece.
In addition, prior to June 24, the Turkish parliament, and the Turkish people by referendum, awarded the presidency with nearly authoritarian power. Erdogan may now use these powers to strengthen even further his control of Turkey’s domestic political order — and to become more aggressive internationally as a result.
Erdogan’s margin of victory in the June 24 election was slim. Despite his hold over the Turkish media, Erdogan garnered but a slim majority of 52% in the election. Erdogan, possibly to increase his domestic political support, might continue taking an aggressive posture toward Greece. Erdogan could, for instance, demand that Athens renegotiate the status of Greek islands in the Aegean Sea, which were awarded to Greece in the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne.
Turkey’s nationalist political parties, which constitute most of the domestic opposition to Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP), already favor a policy that demands Athens return territories given to the Greeks in the Treaty of Lausanne, after the Ottoman Empire’s defeat in World War I. The nationalist People’s Republican Party’s (CHP) leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu publicly impugned Erdogan’s patriotism for having failed to demand that Greece give back all the disputed islands:
“Look at islands of Aegean, they are Greek islands. The islands that should be ours are occupied by Greece. The Greek flag is fluttering on islands belonging to Turkey. I want an answer for this, Erdogan.”
Erdogan might also want to insist that Greece should surrender sovereignty over the Dodecanese Islands, which consist of 163 islands and islets that Italy ceded to Greece in 1947.
Political opposition to Erdogan’s AKP is also based on the fear that Turkey is becoming increasingly anti-democratic. In addition, many Turks fear that Erdogan’s party is intent on transforming Turkey into an Islamic State, thus jettisoning the country’s modern identity as a secular, democratic republic.
Erdogan seems openly nostalgic for the Ottoman Empire, and recently conducted a ceremonial visit to the refurbished tomb of Sultan Mehmet II, the Turkish conqueror of Constantinople in 1453.
The Ottoman Empire was dis-established in 1924, after more than four centuries as the center of Islam. After the declaration of a Turkish Republic in 1923 by secular, nationalist military officers led by Kemal Ataturk (Mustafa Kemal), both the Sultan and Caliph of the Ottoman Caliphate were forced to abdicate.
The initial sign that Erdogan actually may be adopting a more nationalist policy was his forceful request, during a December 2017 visit to Greece, that Greece agree to re-negotiate the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne. The Greek response was immediate and unequivocal. Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos replied:
“The Treaty of Lausanne defines the territory and sovereignty of Greece and the European Union and this treaty is non-negotiable. It has no flaws, it does not to be reviewed or updated.”
Following that rejection, Turkey staged a series of provocative incidents in the Aegean region, including violations of Greek air space and incursions into Greek territorial waters. More serious incidents followed, among them the ramming in February of a Greek Coast Guard vessel by a Turkish patrol boat, harassing a Greek helicopter transporting Greece’s Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras in April, and the crash of a Greek Mirage 2000-5 that had been on a mission responding to Turkish jets violating Greece’s air space over a Greek island close to the Turkish coast.
Bilateral tensions are still escalating. Erdogan is demanding that Greece extradite several Turkish soldiers who fled there for asylum after a failed coup against him in July 2016. Greece’s Supreme Court last year ruled against the extradition, declaring that should an extradition take place, the soldiers would suffer a curtailment of their human rights.
In response, Turkey detained for several months two Greek soldiers who had mistakenly crossed into Turkish territory during inclement weather, but in August finally repatriated them to Greece.
This escalating dispute also includes the divided island of Cyprus, which Turkey invaded in 1974. Since then, Turkey has occupied a northern section of the island, ethnically cleansing Greeks from that part of the island. Cyprus’ political status has remained in limbo ever since.
In June 2017, peace talks between the island nation’s ethnic Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders seemed to be leading to the establishment of a unified government. By February 2018, however, negotiations came to a halt.
The president of Cyprus, Nicos Anastasiades, blamed this sudden collapse on the decision of Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci to await the outcome of the Turkish referendum on the powers of the of the presidency. While the talks remain in recess with no set date for resumption, both the Greek and Turkish communities in Cyprus support a peace settlement. Discussions are underway to explore possibilities for resuming negotiations.
Whatever happens next, Erdogan maintains about 30,000-strong troop presence in the northern portion of Cyprus. If Greek-Turkish tensions escalate, the possibility of another ill-timed military provocation could escalate with them.
The ability of NATO to respond to other conflicts in the area could be affected, as well as NATO air and naval assets based in both countries. Moreover, such a conflict might open up an even greater opportunity for Russian interference.
Erdogan has indicated that he may not be interested in stopping there. Turkish journalist Uzay Bulut, now living in the US, quotes Erdogan as saying in early March 2018:
“There are physical borders and then there are borders in our hearts. Some people ask us: Why do we take an interest in Iraq, Syria, Georgia, Crimea, Karabakh, Azerbaijan, the Balkans, and North Africa?…None of these lands are foreign to us. Is it possible to divide Rize [in Turkey] from Batumi (in [Georgia]? How can we consider Edirne [in Turkey] as separate from Thessaloniki [in Greece]? How can we think that Gaziantep [in Turkey] has nothing to with Aleppo [in Syria], Mardin [in Turkey] with al-Hasakah [in Syria] or Siirt [in Turkey] from Mosul [in Iraq].”
Those overweening attitudes are undoubtedly causing concern in the Trump Administration, already with its hands full with the legacy bequeathed it in Iran, China, and North Korea, to name just a few places. Relations between Washington and Ankara have already deteriorated significantly under Erdogan — as dramatically emphasized by America’s absolutely correct refusal to turn over to Erdogan the man he says is behind Turkey’s 2016 coup attempt, Fethullah Gülen, a Muslim cleric who exiled himself to Pennsylvania almost 20 years ago, as well as by the escalating imbroglio over detained U.S. pastor Andrew Brunson, who is apparently being held as a hostage to force the U.S. to extradite Gülen back to Turkey.
There is a marked increase in pro-Greece rhetoric at the U.S. State Department. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Wess Mitchell recently called Greece, “an anchor of stability in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Western Balkans.” Mitchell also bluntly warned Turkey that the U.S. would not accept any Turkish violations of Cyprus’ Exclusive Economic Zone. Mitchell’s warning was probably a reference to Turkey’s actions to block offshore gas drilling by Cyprus.
If nothing else, Erdogan’s impulsive assertiveness may be inspiring Greece to help in damping down some other sources of regional instability. Athens recently reached a compromise with Macedonia over its name, as “Macedonia” is also a northern region of Greece. Athens then sponsored “The Republic of North Macedonia” as a future new member of NATO.
Greece, which had previously adopted a stridently anti-Western policy in the wake of its massive debt crisis, now describes its overall foreign policy as “Euro-Atlanticism“, and has steadily improved relations with other democratic states such as Israel. Greece and Israel are cooperating with Italy and Cyprus to export to Europe natural gas discovered in Israeli waters.
All of that does not diminish the threats to NATO and the region produced by Erdogan’s growing truculence. Under U.S. President Donald J. Trump, the signs keep growing that the US is more and more likely to see things Greece’s way.
Lyn Leahz sits down with author, Gary Kah, to discuss political forces around the world that are pushing for a New World Order. Because of his background in government, Gary was invited to join the WCPA (World Constitution and Parliament Association), overseeing the planning and implementation of the one world government. For the skeptical observer, the material in this book “should serve as ample evidence that the drive to create a one world government is for real,” including reproductions of the original WCPA documents.The author further demonstrates that there is an ominous cooperation between the globalists, who are promoting the on world government, and the burgeoning New Age groups, who are promoting a new religion. If our countrymen do not begin to resist the sovereign nations will cease to exist and a single global economic system will be established.
Many consider the Temple Mount, where the Second Holy Temple of the Jews stood in the time of Jesus, to be the very heart of Jerusalem. Of particular interest to Christian pilgrims on Holy Land tours are the areas of the Temple Mount known as Solomon’s Stables and Jesus’ Cradle.
Much of the Temple Mount’s splendor is hidden deep underground in a large complex of tunnels and halls. Among these is a series of arched vaults called Solomon’s Stables, so called because the Crusaders, who took control of the area from the Muslims in the 11th century, believed that this is where King Solomon, who had administered the construction of the First Temple, kept his unusually large assembly of horses.
In actuality, the arches served to support an expansion of the Temple Mount that Herod the Great built in the 1st century BC. Over a millennium later, The Knights Templar, an elite fighting force during the Crusades, actually did stable their horses here for some time.
In 1996, the Waqf, the Islamic organization in charge of the Temple Mount today, built a large underground mosque known as Marwani Prayer Hall at the site of Solomon’s Stables. It is no simple matter for non-Muslims to gain access to the site today.
Near the northern entrance of Solomon’s Stables is a small room known as Jesus’ Cradle. Today, it is a place of Muslim worship. According to Muslim tradition, this is the spot where the infant Jesus was presented at the Temple by his mother Mary. Muslims revere Jesus as a prophet and claim that this location was given to them by Christians. Many believe that there was once a church on this site.
What About The Christians, Our Blessed Christian Kingdom Of Jerusalem, The Stables On The Mount Are Still Ours. As Turk Working On Erase Every Trace Of Christianity, Especially The Before Mohamed Era,But Has No Claim On The Armenian Genocide (1.5 Millions, Christians Dead…)
Stand Fast And Protect Jerusalem,,,(From The Jews And The Christian)
As Christians we Should Break This All Muslim Kinda Thinking, And We Also Claiming Our Heritage, Give Us Back Our Stables, That We Can Pray…
Wil.
Palestinians: The Metal Detector Scam
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Palestinians, claiming that the metal detectors were a “desecration” of the mosque — which is actually located on the holiest site in Judaism and the third-holiest in Islam – entered into violent clashes with Israeli security forces. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan denounced Israel and called on Muslims to “protect” Jérusalem.
On February 16th of 2017, US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley gave a speech following the UN Security Council Consultations on the Middle East. See the video above or transcript below.
Too bad you’renot telling Do not show Signs ofweakness. Yes, fear ofleavingscars Not ready toclose up Runyour ownthoughts, your smile Bentlikea question mark(?)Always Foldabletime, it‘s too bad that not telling Wish you were. You said it waslike a war–Night After Night Hernausea. Do not believe amanin the city, close-up She will not. It’stoo bad you’renot telling.
This is Tragic and Cruel. The Rebels in Syria supposedly
to take over the Al-Hassad Regime, are now the ennemies.
I don’t think Bashar is laughing, but the situation put him now as an ally.. and an important one to cover a front, and a front that end with the border of Israel…
More video of today’s jihad in France. In what increasingly looks like a Middle East hellhole, young rock-throwing Muslims in Paris chant, “Let’s go to the Jewish neighborhood.” “Tous au quartier juif!” Unfortunately, they did go to the Jewish neighborhood and they vandalized and attacked a number of Jewish stores along the way. What difference is there between these Muslims and their Nazi predecessors? Jews need an immediate evacuation from France. Would Obama lift the airban for them? –
The Israeli soccer team Maccabi Haifa was playing soccer in Lille in France when, in the middle of the game, violent Muslims took the field. They attacked the Maccabi players, forcing an end to the game.
1,242 people have been killed by Palestinian violence and terrorism since September 2000.
Note: This list also includes 18 Israelis killed abroad in terror attacks directed specifically against Israeli targets, and 3 American diplomatic personnel killed in Gaza.
Not listed are 9 IDF soldiers killed during the ground operation against Hamas terror in Gaza (27 Dec 2008 – 18 Jan 2009)
According to statistics published by the Israel Security Agency at the end of 2013, since the start of the second Intifada, 1,227 people have been killed by Palestinian terrorism and 8,549 were wounded.
Fatalities since September 2000
VICTIMES du terrorisme palestinien depuis 2000
Wounded since September 2000
Source: Israel Security Agency
List of victims by date:
Sept 27, 2000 – Sgt. David Biri, 19, of Jerusalem, was fatally wounded in a bombing near Netzarim in the Gaza Strip.
During his state visit to Greece in 2017, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made a forceful request that Greece agree to re-negotiate the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne. Pictured: Erdogan and Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras in Athens on December 7, 2017. (Photo by Milos Bicanski/Getty Images)
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