Posted on 07/25/2020 7:02:10 PM PDT by RomanSoldier19
AN UNPRECEDENTED EU crisis looms as tensions between the Brussels bloc and Turkey escalate along its border, as Greece warns it will do "whatever is necessary" to defend itself from Ankara.
Earlier this week, Athens vowed to defend its rights against "any type of threat" after Turkey confirmed plans to send oil-and-gas research vessels to the Eastern Mediterranean.
Greek armed forces are officially on 'high alert' and are monitoring Turkish movements in the region.
French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday gave his backing to Greece in the dispute.
Mr Macron called for sanctions against Turkey, adding he will soon call en emergency meeting of southern EU states.
He said: “We must not accept threats to the sea area of an EU member state.
“Europe must defend its sovereignty."
However, Turkey reacted by ridiculing these threats, saying "the statements of Macron have no value for our country".
Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Hami Aksoy said the threats “will have no result".
(Excerpt) Read more at express.co.uk ...
Greece vs Turkey. I guess the honeymoon is over.
Macron promptly farted in their general direction.
Wars and rumors of wars.
macroni growing a facial beard like his paramour trudeau would scare the hell out of ol’ erdogan.
I have, yet another, dumb question.
Why are Turkey’s plans to send oil-and-gas research vessels to the Eastern Mediterranean considered some kind of threat?
Sounds very innocuous to me.
It was a great mistake to invite Turkey into the various organizations of western countries.
But, it happened and now the Turkish aggression is coming to the fore once again and the Effete Euro’s bluster will be called out by the Turks.
And, the Turks are already laughing at the western EU countries who are overrun with hundreds of thousands of Islamists they will rise up as the enemy within in any war action western Europe takes against muslim Turkey.
The Greeks are so bankrupt they are toast without EU solidarity. Greece needed the EU to keep tham from collapse. A welfare state. They will need the EU to defend them as well.
You may want to ask the Greek Cypriots.
Any lurking here?
I can’t get the link to open in IE or Chrome — not even by going to express.co.uk’s website and hunting it down, there, but, here’s some background on the situation:
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/war-between-greece-and-turkey-now-real-possibility-165465
> Sounds very innocuous to me. <
Turkey wants to explore in waters claimed by Greece or Cyprus. Sorta like what China is doing in the South China Sea.
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/war-between-greece-and-turkey-now-real-possibility-165465
The situation has some similarities to China’s behavior in the waters around Philippines, Vietnam, etc., but with a pushy Islamist President behind it, here. Plus, throw in an internal NATO rift, although when it comes to NATO, Erdogan is pretty much on his own on this one.
Interesting point. I think I remember when there was some armed conflict there back in the 60s. The UN or somebody stepped in and split the island in half.
Looting of Cyprus
Following the invasion of Cyprus in 1974 by Turkey and the occupation of the northern part of the island, churches belonging to the Cypriot Orthodox Church have been looted in what is described as “one of the most systematic examples of the looting of art since World War II”.[15][16]
Several-high-profile cases have made headline news on the international scene. Most notable was the case of the Kanakaria mosaics, 6th-century AD frescos that were removed from the original church, trafficked to the US and offered for sale to a museum for the sum of US$20,000,000.[17] These were subsequently recovered by the Orthodox Church following a court case in Indianapolis.[18]
The northern part of the island is where the church and art looting was concentrated.[19] It is rumored that the Turkish-Cypriot leaders did not feel an obligation to preserve the artifacts and monuments in the north because they felt that the Greek-Cypriot government had oppressed them for too long.[16]
Archaeological sites, museums, churches, monasteries, castles, libraries, and private art collections have all been affected by the looting of the northern area of Cyprus; icons, frescoes, archaeological artifacts, and cultural heritage have been stripped from areas around the island and have been taken to places all over the world or simply destroyed.[20] Some believe that this has been done to ‘Turkify’ the northern region of the country and erase the characteristics of the Cypriot predecessors, while people like Aydin Dikmen have been working to make money off of cultural heritage artifacts by selling them in international markets
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Looted_art#Looting_of_Cyprus
Thank you for that post!
There are a zillion island in the Aegean, between Greece and Turkey. Most are Greek. The Turks are more or less saying they are going to explore in Greek waters. Sort of analogous to what the Chicoms are doing in the South China Sea, next to Phillipines, Vietnam, etc.
Turkey has been sliding to an Islamism, with Ergodan acting like he is the new caliph.
The middle east has featured Turks and their predecessors the Ottomans and before them the Byzantines versus the Persians for thousand of years, with the Arabs, Egyptians and North Africans being variously part of it or caught in the middle.
For a time, the west had alliances with Turkey and Iran, with most of the Arab world (Syria, Egypt and Iraq) aligning with the Soviets.
Then there was the Iranian revolution of 1979. During the Iraq-Iran war, Iraq fought with military equipment that had previously been supplied to it by the Soviet Union; and, Iran fought with military equipment that had previously been supplied to it by the U.S. Except, both countries were in some kind of transition. The neo-cons thought to snatch Iraq and turn it into a western democracy. Instead, the neo-cons f’d up, and Iraq is today a vassal state of Iran.
The “moderate” Sunnis then started messing with Syria and Iraq. By moderate I mean Al Qaida as opposed to ISIS. These so-called moderates were backed by the Muslim Brotherhood, Qatar and Obama via Hillarious Clinton’s state department. A three-way orgy of war and violence ensued, with Al Qaida, ISIS and Iran fighting in Syria, Iraq and Libya.
With Turkey’s drift into Islamism, it is now organizing Sunni a insurgency in Libya, making nasty faces at former allies of Israel, the U.S. and NATO, in addition to opposing Iran, and Turkey has a strange relationship with Russia and Saudi Arabia.
Turkey could be a real odd man out, if all of its neighbors were to gang up on it. It should to play its opponents off against each other, and limit its confrontation to one at a time. But, Ergodan is ambitious and he has to deflect attention from his country’s poor economic performance.
On the other hand, NATO is a joke other than the U.S., Poland, and maybe Britain. France acts like it’s a power to reckon with, but is stretched thin in francophone Africa. Germany and Russia have very good military equipment, but only small (Russia) or nonexistent (Germany) armed forces. Egypt looks to kick ass against Turkey’s faction in Libya. And, unlike Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Iran, Turkey has no oil to sell, and relies - like China - on the export of manufactured goods. The Europeans can buy that crap from any number of other places.
Greece is in much better shape than it was a few years ago. It now has a center-right government, and a small surplus in its budget. With some creative exchange of debt for equity in state enterprises, its overhang of debt can be reduced to a manageable level.
Military-wise, Greece has a 100,000-man active component with 500,000 reserves. (It has large reserves because of universal military training.)
Turkey, on the other hand, has a formidable armed force, of 400,000 active and 400,000 reserve personnel. Turkey has impressive ground and air forces, and a budding navy. The navy includes a smallish-amphibious assault ship (or, light carrier). At 24 tons, as compared to our WASP-class which comes in at 40 tons. Turkey might think that it can push its weight around in the region and project force to North Africa.
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