NEW YORK—Greece and Turkey have spent a week immersed in a diplomatic tug-of-war over a set of tiny border islands, reviving existing tensions and adding a new front to Ankara’s belligerent foreign policy in the region.
On Monday, Turkey’s prime minister Binali Yildirim claimed that the Turkish Coast Guard had taken down Greek flags from an unpopulated Greek islet facing the Turkish coast; Greek officials denied it. The flags had reportedly been placed there by three Greek students who were on vacation in the area. The incident is symbolically loaded: In 1996, the two countries nearly went to war over a pair of unpopulated islets, and have maintained a permanent low-key territorial bickering since the fall of the Ottoman empire in the early 20th century.
Following the flag episode, Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras visited Kastellorizo, an island adjacent to the Turkish coast, on Wednesda, to inaugurate two desalination plants and send a message to Greece’s neighbor.
“Greece threatens no one but nor is it afraid of anyone,” said Tsipras in a reference to its counterparts’ allegations.
This peak of tension occurred in a moment of apparent truce after the escalating hostilities of the previous months. In April, Turkish jets violated Greek airspace at least 30 times, according to Greek media. Last December, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan used a landmark visit to Greece—the first by a Turkish president in 65 years—to suggest a revision of the treaty that regulates Greek-Turkish relations, including their territorial borders. Stunning those who assumed the trip would have a conciliatory spirit, Erdogan spoke unfavorably of his host country, and asked for the Greek government to expatriate the eight Turkish officials who escaped to Greece after the 2016 alleged coup in Ankara. That same month, the leader of the opposition in Turkey, CHP’s Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, boasted that he would take back 18 islands “invaded by Greece” by 2019, referring to the date of the next Turkish election.
Photo: The Port of Kastellorizo Island, Dodecanese, Greece, by Chris Vlachos (Filed under CC license). Images may be resized automatically by our WordPress template.
Be First to Comment