Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Friday rebuked Greece for continuing to arm the Aegean islands and dismissed remarks from his Greek counterpart Kyriakos Mitsotakis claiming the rival nations could “sit down and talk through” their issues.
“Mitsotakis’ remarks aren’t enough to determine the fate of the region,” Erdoğan told reporters after Friday prayers in Istanbul. “We can see Greek authorities are failing to implement conditions of Lausanne with their approach,” he said, referring to islands whose demilitarization is guaranteed under the Treaties of Lausanne (1923) and Paris (1947).
He accused Greece of “taking steps violating Lausanne and other treaties” and said, “This won’t stand.”
He assured that Türkiye was bringing up issues like this at international summits “when the time is right” and said Greece would have to “fend for itself.”
Speaking at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in the Swiss resort of Davos on Thursday, Mitsotakis argued there was no possibility of war between Mediterranean rivals Türkiye and Greece.
“We will not go to war with Türkiye though we witnessed a lot of tension in the last three years,” Mitsotakis said when asked if it is dangerous to vacation on the Greek island of Kastellorizo (Meis), miles from the Turkish summer resort town of Kaş in Antalya province.
“We should be able to sit down with Türkiye to resolve our main difference, the delimitation of maritime zones in the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean,” he said.
Over the past year, while Ankara occasionally called for dialogue to settle their long-standing quarrel, President Erdoğan has repeatedly urged Athens to “behave” and steer clear of provocations, even warning that Türkiye “may come suddenly one night if they keep acting out.”
Mitsotakis said he trusts that there will be a de-escalation with Ankara after elections, which Erdoğan earlier this week indicated could be held on May 14.
Later on Friday, Erdoğan addressed a rally in Istanbul and reiterated his warning to Greece. Dismissing Greece's concerns over locally made Typhoon missiles, Erdoğan said Greece should not be worried as long as they "act smartly."
"(Mitsotakis) behave smartly or you will see the march of crazy Turks," the president told a fervent crowd at an opening ceremony. "If you behave smartly, we have nothing to do with you," he added. "But we will not stand here with our hands tied if you keep arming the islands," he said.
The Greek premier himself faces the upcoming elections this summer.
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 treaty obligations and harassing Turkish jets on NATO missions through its Russian-made S-300 defense systems. Ankara says the moves frustrate its good-faith efforts for peace.
These aren’t the only issues the neighbors are locking horns over. Competing and overlapping claims to jurisdiction and continental shelves in the Eastern Mediterranean, maritime boundaries, energy exploration in said disputed territories, the ethnically divided island of Cyprus and migrants are other problems straining weakened ties.
Relations mainly deteriorated last year when Mitsotakis, despite previously agreeing with Erdoğan “not to include third countries in our dispute,” lobbied to block the sale of F-16 fighter jets to Türkiye during a visit to the U.S., prompting the Turkish leader to declare he “no longer exists” for him and cut ties altogether.
With few days left in 2022, reports surfaced indicating Greece was once again revising its enduring plans to extend its territorial waters by 12 nautical miles, something it attempted to accomplish in the 1990s but scuttled after Ankara declared such a move would be a cause of war.
Türkiye would “never allow” Greece to pull such a move, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu declared. Citing a 1995 Turkish parliamentary decision stipulating that the government would be authorized to use military powers to defend Türkiye’s interests, he said: “We are warning Greece once again. Don’t get into sham heroism by trusting those who might have your back. It won’t end well for you.”
As 2023 advances, Ankara is moving on with its efforts to obtain the F-16 jets from Washington, with Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu trekking over to the U.S. this week to iron out a deal with Secretary of State Anthony Blinken. However, the sale is still facing opposition in the U.S. Congress, which, in now discarded demands from the bill, wanted “concrete” assurances that the jets would not be used for “unauthorized overflights” in Greece.
Congress, in the meantime, is finalizing the sale of F-35 fighter jets to Greece, with lawmakers welcoming Athens as “a trusted NATO ally” and lauding the deal that “strengthens our two nations’ abilities to defend shared principles including our collective defense, democracy, human rights and the rule of law.”
Describing his government as “economically liberal, socially progressive and patriotic” when it comes to national interests, Mitsotakis said officials are putting particular emphasis on strengthening Greece’s military capabilities and consequently significantly increased defense spending.
Over the past year, Athens intensified its efforts to bolster its military with more fighter jets and navy frigates and granted Washington access to three bases on its mainland and a naval presence on the island of Crete. It has also been documented that Greek troops have been deployed on the Pserimos island, sitting barely 8 kilometers (5 miles) off Türkiye’s southwestern shores.
This week, the Greek navy staged another “Lightning” naval exercise with U.S. troops in the Aegean Sea “in preparation against enemy fleets.”
Earlier this month, Defense Minister Hulusi Akar reiterated Türkiye’s call to its neighbor not to “push back the hand of friendship we extended” and said Ankara would not leave any harassment or provocation without a response.
