Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis had demanded that the European Union impose sanctions on Turkey in December as a result of Turkish aggression against Greek and Cypriot territorial rights. The European Union refused to do so in large part because of the Germans who happen to have a large Turkish community in their country and because they are afraid of Turkish threats to flood Europe with refugees. Other countries such as Spain did not wish to disrupt economic relations with the Turkish aggressor.
Again, this brings to mind the historically pro Ottoman foreign policies of the European Empires. Great Britain and France historically supported the Ottoman Empire against the Russians. During the Greek effort to liberate Asia Minor, Italy, France, and Great Britain gave support to the Turks even as the Kemalist genocide against the Armenians, Assyrians, and Greeks continued unabated.
During the First World War, the Germans armed the Young Turks and were completely indifferent to the genocide of the Armenians, Greeks, and Assyrians. During the Second World War, Germany invaded Greece, massacred much of its population, created a famine that killed many more Greeks, and confiscated Greece’s gold. The Germans have never been and never will be Greece’s friends.
The Mitsotakis government has done good in many ways and the Prime Minister deserves the confidence of all Greeks for the way he has defended Greece from the Turks. However, he needs to take a more realistic viewpoint regarding Europe and needs to reach out to Russia.
The Russians have condemned the opening of the beach of Varosha in the Turkish occupied territories of Cyprus. Russia has openly expressed support for Greece’s territorial rights in the Aegean citing international law. Greek critics of the Russians will cite Moscow’s friendly ties with Ankara.
The conduct of present day foreign policy and the formulation of future policies depends in great part on the historical past. Throughout the course of history, Russia and Turkey have been enemies with exceptional periods in which both sides reconciled in the interests of peace. There is no reason to believe that the present state of Russian-Turkish relations will remain as they are.
Turkey has become a jihadist state which conflicts with Russia as the center of Orthodox Christianity. Turkey supports Syrian jihadists against the Armenians and in Libya. These are the same Syrian jihadists that Russia and its ally in Damascus fought against. Russian and Turkish interests do not coincide and somewhere down the line these relations will fall apart.
Greece needs to keep all options open and should be contemplating the benefits of a Greek-Russian partnership which would have enormous benefits for Greece. It is true that Greece has established excellent relations with France and this relationship should be developed and pursued.
Greece should pursue relations with individual European states and should forget the European Union. As long as the European Union is dominated by Germany, Greece will never win support against Turkey. At the same time, there are encouraging signs from Washington.
Former American Ambassador to Greece Nicholas Burns condemned Turkish aggression against Greece. This is a good sign but not a guarantee of a change of policy. Greece should work to win the good will of Washington as long as the latter is willing to do away with Turkey. At the same time, Greece should be developing its relations with Russia.
If Greece is to be a sovereign state, its relations with Russia is an internal affair for Greece and should be pursued both in the interests of Hellenism and Pan-Orthodox Unity.
7 replies on “Europe betrays Greece….Again!!!”
Greece needs to keep all options open. While Russia has been supportive of Greece verbally, they still have a broad economic relationship with Turkey and Putin has ongoing dialogue with Erdogan. The Russians feel close to Greece as ‘Orthodox brothers’, but they have to be pragmatic-especially concerning economic relationships. Russia is still suffering the impact of US led economic sanctions and the Ruble has lost significant value since they were enacted. Also, COVID is cutting a swath through Russia currently and this is not a favorable time for making changes to standing policies of any kind. Greece needs to think long-term and conduct it’s foreign affairs strategically-and that means keeping communication and dialogue with both Russia and the United States. I think Mitsotakis has done a good job of that, while Erdogan has managed to offend just about everybody. I’m interested to see who Biden nominates for Secretary of State, hopefully it’ll be someone who will continue to defend Greek interests in the Aegian. It’d be a disaster if it was someone of the Hillary Clinton/Madeleine Albright mold, but it could well be. Biden won’t deviate from the CFR/TLC ‘recommendations’ when it comes to foreign policy.
The National Herald reports that even France voted against imposing sanctions on Turkey. The European Union is no friend of Greece. The Greeks need to start thinking independently. Russia is the best option over the long term.
It’s useless to count on the French, Italians, Germans, Dutch or British for support. Western Europe is composed of nations who, while sharing business relationships with each other, barely conceal their contempt for each other. The reasons for this are largely historical and denote the inability of European nations to think of the larger vision of Europe’s shared interests, instead they only think of their national interests. The French hate the Germans and vice versa. The British still think of themselves as a world power and look down their noses at continental Europe. The Germans hate most of the small nations in Europe and treat them with contempt, including Greece. The EU has been beneficial to Europe from the standpoint of promoting a common, strong currency-but from a foreign affairs perspective it’s almost useless. There is no common strategy, it’s every nation for themselves and small nations suck hind titty. This is why the EU is falling apart and will continue to do so as time goes on. The Eurozone-those nations sharing a common currency, the EURO-will probably continue in existence because it’s been a boon to economic growth and trade. But the EU denoting a common approach to foreign affairs is doomed, it got crushed under the boot heel of the Germans, primarily. They can’t get over their natural arrogance.
Europe has never been able to function as intended as a “united states of Europe”. Too many contradictory interests and cultures. In the end it is going to end up as part of the next caliphate which is likely to be the emerging Turkish Empire.
The EU tried to form a ‘federal’ authority in Brussels, but they became too overbearing and got involved in things they shouldn’t have-offending many of the nations citizens. A large part of that is the Leftist orientation of most western European nations, the people just aren’t going to embrace that socialist, Godless claptrap. On top of it, small nations are not adequately represented. In the USA, small states have an equal number of upper House Senators as the large states. That gives them an equal say in important matters, like national defense. That sort of lower House/upper House representation doesn’t exist in the EU, so small nations get steamrolled by large nations on issues like foreign affairs. It took the USA centuries to develop a workable balance of power in our branches of government, the EU big powers aren’t willing to give up their dominance by sharing more power with smaller nations. EU will probably not last as an arbiter of foreign policy, because it isn’t defending nations on the periphery.
The premise of the Authors citation is wrong and misleading, when arguing matters of provocation and infliction. Greece is playing what is a well rehearsed strategy in causing an international incident then relying on allied to bolster its position. The claims advance by Greece are simply without merit. The claims in which Greece seek to claim The Turkish coastline are provocative and ill-found.
In the first instance, the authors fails to correctly report on historic facts. In the second instance, Greece isn’t a coastal nation on the Levantine sea and so I fail to understand what is being actually said on that point. Regarding the Aegean Sea the ICJ was found not to be competent in deciding that matter and dismissed the Greek case. https://www.icj-cij.org/en/case/62/judgments.
Regarding Cyprus, the present circumstance is ceasefire, the island is ethically divided and the UN peacekeepers patrol the Green Line . the TRNC and Turkey don’t recognize the southern occupied area. The 1960 republic is a failed state what collapsed when the Greek Junta invaded causing the collapse of the constitution rendering the failed state and ethnically cleansed the Turkish Cypriots. The south holds temporary administration through the doctrine of necessity when no one had jurisdiction to unilaterally declare that ruling through the defunct Cyprus supreme court. Marash ( Vorosha) in any event is Turkish Vakif Titles and the inference and claims made by the author are wrong on the facts
The crux of the authors writing is much like a hate speech , it is simply inciting intolerance and hatred. The issue between the national is found in that Greece is claiming the waters in the Aegean and Levantine seas where it has no coastline in an act of expansionism upto to the Turkish Coastline. That position is unsupported by the Lausanne treaty or by UNCLOS which states that two coastal states must agree and not as in the conduct of Greece unilaterally make a declaration .
Despite 15 years of invitation to negotiate presented by Turkey, Greece has tried to form a alliance with other regional state and ostracizing Turkey. In response Turley developed its own Mediterranean strategy in securing its territorial interest to the exclusion of others.
Thank you for your comments. I disagree with them but respect your right to express your opinion. I will try to be brief in my response.
First, Turkish expansionism has been expressed by the outright claims put forward by the Turkish President on the Greek islands. On a visit to Athens in late 2017, the Turkish President demanded a revision of the Treaty of Lausanne and has proceeded to claim several Greek islands as have many members of the Turkish Parliament in most opposition parties.
Regarding Cyprus, Turkish expansionism manifested itself in 1955 when Great Britain and Turkey colluded against Cyprus. Turkey demanded either the whole of Cyprus or at least half of Cyprus disregarding the fact that eighty percent of the population in Cyprus was Greek. In Turkey itself, a party was formed which called itself “Cyprus is Turkish”.
Regarding the events of the summer of 1974, Greeks such as Dimitrios Ioannides and others have long passed from the political scene. Turkish extremists on the other hand remain entrenched on the Turkish side. Cyprus is not a failed state, it is the victim of two
Turkish invasions.
The Turkish claim to have been acting against the Greek junta in July 1974 was undermined by the invasion of August 14, 1974. It was this second invasion that saw the seizure of up to thirty seven percent of Cyprus and the ethnic cleansing of the Greek Cypriots in Turkish occupied territory. All this after the Greek military junta collapsed and order in Cyprus had been restored.
Turkish aggression in Cyprus can be proven by Ankara’s policy of settling over 100,000 settlers from Ankara in the occupied territories of Cyprus. These are not defensive actions. Furthermore, Turkey has destroyed over five hundred and fifty Greek Orthodox and Armenian Churches and Monasteries in occupied Cyprus. These are not defensive actions either.