Tensions Flare Between Greece, Turkey

Could We See a Greco-Turkish War This Summer?

Tensions between Athens and Ankara have been strained following an incident where Turkish F-16 jets flew over Greek-controlled islands, thus violating Greek airspace. When Greece dispatched a jet to intercept the fighters, the pilot crashed his plane and was promptly killed. This, along with last month’s arrest of two Greek police officers patrolling the Turkish border and a Monday incident when Turkish troops allegedly removed the Greek flag from its post near the islet of Fournoi, has stoked the Greeks’ ire towards Turkey.

The actions of Turkish president Recep Erdogan has not helped in cooling down the situation, who has been adopting a more aggressive foreign policy towards Greece. Erdogan claims that Greece occupies territory that has a sizable Turkish minority, such as Thrace in northern Greece and and various islets in the Aegean sea. These territories were given to Greece in the Treaty of Lausanne during the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire between the Allied powers following the end of WWI. Erdogan claims that the Treaty of Lausanne be revisited and that rightful Turkish territory be returned to Turkey. Greece, on the other hand, has vehemently refused to hand over this land to Turkey, with Greek Prime Minister Tsipras claiming that Erdogan was acting ‘like a sultan’, and Greek Defense Minister Panos Kammenos, a member of the nationalistic and populistic New Democracy Party, has taunted the Turks by saying “come and get it.”

Kammenos and his party have been particularly unhelpful in trying to soothe relations between Greece and Turkey due to their aggressive comments towards Erdogan. On the other hand, nationalist Turkish politician Kemal Kilicdaroglu is pushing Ankara to take back their claimed territory in the Aegean. Now because of populistic politicians sabre-rattling on both sides, Greece and Turkey find themselves in “undeclared war in the Aegean.”