It is shocking that Greece engaged in a "hostile act" against its NATO ally Türkiye during a NATO mission over the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean seas, an analyst and former U.S. diplomat said on Saturday.
On Aug. 23, a Russian-made S-300 air defense system stationed on the Greek island of Crete engaged in "harassment" (radar locking) on Turkish aircraft. Former U.S. diplomat Matthew Bryza told Anadolu Agency (AA): "As Ankara has stated, clearly this is considered a hostile act according to normal military procedures. It's shocking to me that one NATO ally would take such action against another NATO ally."
Bryza, now a senior researcher at the Atlantic Council, a Washington-based think tank, called the incident "a further sign of escalation" by the Greek side, rejecting Ankara's efforts to decrease bilateral tensions that rose in August 2020.
"I think from Ankara's perspective Ankara tried to de-escalate what Athens decided to escalate and the locking a Turkish F-16 by the S-300 radars is a further sign of escalation as is the pushbacks of migrants in the Aegean Sea from the Greek side of the Aegean and back into the Turkish side," he said.
Regarding Greek media reports that claim that the incident was a result of Türkiye "deciding to provoke" Athens, he said: "That's a completely false narrative. And I think the Greek political leadership is using fear of Türkiye as a way to, of course, to strengthen itself domestically in Greek domestic politics."
Greece indulges in certain actions in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean that might seem provocative to the Turkish side, said Tudor Onea, an academic at the International Relations department of Bilkent University in Ankara.
"Both sides have tried to sort of get on each other's nerves. Each of them is trying to make the other one back up," Onea told AA.
"Of course, there is a difference. Türkiye is a bigger and much stronger actor in terms of population, economy, and military. It is definitely the heavyweight in the relationship," Onea added.
Stressing that Türkiye and Greece had a long history, he described the ties between the countries as a "friendly rivalry."
The real root behind the rivalry is the discovery of reserves of natural gas in the Mediterranean, he said. This rekindled, in fact, the whole issue about having a clear demarcation line between the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) of Greece and Türkiye, he added.
The only way that Greece can resist is to bring in help from outside, he said, adding that Greece has adopted this as the "modus operandi" for years.
While Türkiye has often criticized NATO, including the U.S., for not supporting it enough on its territorial dispute with Greece, he said the biggest areas of concern for the U.S. right now are East Asia and Russia.
"As far as the U.S. is concerned, it does not want to blow it up into something bigger. It would appeal to put pressure on both sides to reach some sort of diplomatic accommodation. And definitely not to escalate (the tension) to the point where there is a risk and serious response," he said, adding that the U.S. has decent relations with both sides to ensure peace in the region.
Ömer Özkılçık, a Turkish foreign policy and security analyst, said that there are two factors that come into play. "The first is Greece's lobbying power and the other is Türkiye's declining lobbying power in America," he told AA.
He also stressed U.S. Senator Bob Menendez was the "key element" in the Greek lobby. Greece locked on Turkish warplanes right after Menendez's visit to Greece. "In his speech, Bob Menendez defines Türkiye as the biggest threat in the Eastern Mediterranean and completely accepts Greek theses and says them as if they are real," the analyst said.
Özkılçık added that the Armenian lobby, the Greek lobby and also the influence of the terrorist organizations such as the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) and the PKK have reduced Türkiye's lobbying power in the U.S. despite Ankara being right on many issues.
"Greece succeeds in filling this gap in its favor," he said.
According to Turkish National Defense Ministry sources, Greece violated Türkiye's airspace and territorial waters over 1,100 times in the first eight months of this year alone.
Türkiye, a NATO member for over 70 years, has complained of repeated provocative actions and rhetoric by Greece in the region in recent months, including arming islands near Turkish shores that are demilitarized under the treaty, saying that such moves frustrate its good faith efforts for peace.
Özkılçık said the U.S. allowed an exemption for India over its purchase of the Russian S-400 missile defense systems but not Türkiye.
"There are geopolitical reasons. Since the U.S. wanted to focus on China, it gave an exemption to India in its own laws. Here, India is an element to balance China. The U.S. did not want to impose sanctions against India and damage relations," Özkılçık said.
"Rather than wanting to balance Russia, the U.S. preferred to balance China. There is a geopolitical interest here," he added.
Washington has long tried to deter countries from buying military equipment from Russia, threatening them with punitive measures under its Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA).
However, when Moscow and New Delhi inked a $5.5 billion deal for the S-400 system in 2018, the U.S. Congress this year recommended a waiver over sanctioning India for its purchase.
The proposal argues that a strong U.S.-India defense partnership is critical in light of growing threats in the region, calling sanctions counterproductive – an argument that was not made when sanctions were proposed against Türkiye, a steadfast NATO ally of the U.S. since 1952.
Özkılçık said the Indian lobby in the U.S. was another factor that was working effectively, much like the Israeli and Greek lobbies.
He added that the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate are two institutions that are mainly under the influence of the lobbies.
"These institutions are bent on protecting the interests of other states, not the U.S.," he said.
