Erdogan with two faces: Incendiary rhetoric towards Greece, “complaints” to the West about “balance”

By Penelope Galliou

At a time when Greece is steadily and continuously walking the path of International Law and this one and only way to resolve the Greek-Turkish disputes was once again shown to Turkey by Kyriakos Mitsotakis from Tallinn, Tayyip Erdogan continues to regress with his “political bipolarity”, which pushes him on the one hand to try to open channels of communication with the west and on the other hand the internal political conditions of Turkey to strengthen his inflammatory anti-Greek rhetoric, in case he succeeds and recovers in the polls.

A characteristic, new example is the telephone communication that the Turkish president had with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, expressing her his annoyance at Germany’s attitude recently in the Greek-Turkish disputes. After the German leader’s recent visit to Athens, Tayyip Erdoğan, apparently disturbed by the attitude of Berlin, which abandoned the policy of equal distances, “leaning” towards the positions of Greece, asked Olaf Solz to return to the status of neutrality in relations Greece-Turkey, using as an argument that both are NATO allies.

A relationship that Tayyip Erdoğan remembers and uses as they like, and now that the number of NATO member countries that draw his attention to his provocations against Greece is constantly increasing, reminding him precisely of the alliance relationship within NATO between Greece and Turkey. Just last week, Olaf Solz had declared from Greek territory that “it is not acceptable for a NATO member state to question the territorial integrity of another NATO member. The same message has been sent many times by powerful countries of the North Atlantic Alliance, including yesterday during their joint statements with Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Estonian Prime Minister Kaya Kallas he emphasized the importance of European security in the critical geopolitical conditions and after being informed by the Greek prime minister about the Turkish provocations, he called, especially the NATO allies, as he said, not to create conditions of additional tension in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Despite the fact that the statements of the German chancellor from Athens seem to have disturbed the Turkish president, Ankara insists on its provocative actions in the Aegean, but also on its aggressive rhetoric towards Athens, and at the same time, Tayyip Erdoğan places special emphasis on close dialogue with Chancellor Soltz on the strengthening of bilateral relations in every field and also on the need to revitalize Turkey’s EU accession process.

A course that is dynamized by the behavior of the Turkish president himself, and although Turkey was officially declared a candidate country for EU membership in 1999, the road to Europe is paved with obstacles put up by Erdogan himself and any progress has essentially frozen. Just last month, after all, a European Commission report criticized Ankara for not making any progress towards its goal of joining the European bloc, citing “serious deficiencies in the functioning of Turkey’s democratic institutions,” while Berlin belongs to the European partners who are openly critical of the deteriorating human rights situation in Turkey.

And while on the one hand the Turkish president turns his gaze to the West and his NATO allies, on the other he “changes” towards his internal audience, playing an “against” role, and continuing his propaganda tricks. In this context, Erdoğan’s new provocative position to “strengthen security in every corner of the blue homeland” is included. During his speech to the Turkish police, the Turkish President, on the sidelines of the unprecedented incident with the Turkish coast guard that prevented a rescue and search operation off Samos, referred to the blue homeland again and characteristically said that “with the police and the coast guard, we are strengthening security in the 780 thousand square kilometers of our territory but also in every corner of our Blue Homeland”, at the time when a Turkish vessel entered an area of ​​responsibility of Greece and carried out dangerous maneuvers in front of a vessel of the Greek coast guard, even attempting to cause damage to the Greek vessel, showing off its armament.

Greece, for its part, observes, records and remains fully prepared, and while it has not closed the “door” of dialogue with Turkey, it nevertheless continues to internationalize Ankara’s provocation at every opportunity and insists exclusively on its way International Law. During his joint statements with his Estonian counterpart, Kyriakos Mitsotakis was clear “There is only one way to resolve disputes, there is only one manual we can use and that is International Law and in our case, the United Nations treaties on the Law of the Sea, because our disputes with Turkey are related to the definition of maritime zones. For this to happen, unnecessary provocations, offensive rhetoric against Greece, open questioning of the sovereignty of our islands are completely unacceptable acts that must stop immediately,” he explained.

Equally clear was Nikos Dendias’ message to Turkey that Greece is not intimidated by Turkish threats. “For our part, we reject and condemn extreme statements at every opportunity and we will continue to do so. Our country does not shy away from challenges and threats. Precisely to avoid a worsening of the situation, it would be useful to have channels of communication at all levels” noted the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

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