January 31 will be the twenty fifth anniversary of the notorious Imia affair. Imia is the name of a Greek islet in the Aegean Sea that Turkey claimed. The Treaty of Peace with Italy that was signed in 1947 gave the Dodecanese islands along with all islets in the Aegean Sea to Greece. There is no question that Imia is a Greek islet.
Despite historic treaties and maps affirming Imia as Greek, Athens was pressured by the United States government to withdraw the Greek flag from Imia. This was a major defeat and setback for Greece and a victory for Turkey. It should be remembered that it was the Democratic administration of Bill Clinton that neutralized Greek sovereignty over Imia.
Over the past half a year or so, Turkish aggression has been manifested against Greece and Cyprus. Turkey challenges Greek sovereignty in the eastern mediterranean and claims outright several Greek islands that belong to Athens according to international treaties and are populated by ethnic Greeks. There are two factors in the year 2020 that were different from 1996.
The first difference was that the internationalist Prime Minister Costas Simitis and his PASOK party are gone from the political scene. Simitis was an anti Greek Prime Minister that was more interested in being European. Greece today is led by New Democracy leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis who has proven to be more of a nationalist and is more committed to the defense of Greece than Simitis was.
The second difference between 2020 and 1996 is the difference between the Trump and the Clinton administrations. In 1996, Undersecretary of State Richard Holbrooke “negotiated” between Greece and Turkey. In reality, he pressured Greece to back down and the Greek flag came down from Imia.
In 2020, the Greek Government under the leadership of Mitsotakis stood up to the Turks and has refused to give away Greece’s sovereign rights. There is no evidence that the Trump administration in any way attempted to bully Greece into making concessions to the Turks.
Just something for Greeks to consider carefully before the inauguration of Joe Biden.
One reply on “Imia Twenty five Years Later”
Greek American voters are in the majority completely ignorant regarding how US foreign policy impacts Hellenic issues. They make their voting decisions based on the campaign hype that both parties put out, not based on sound consideration of how the respective parties have directed their foreign policy in that region. I agree that historically the GOP and Democrat Party have been equally unhelpful-and in fact destrucive-of Hellenic interests. That changes with SOS Mike Pompeo, who has taken a even-handed approach between Greece and Turkey.
While Pompeo has interfered in Orthodox Church matters and deserves criticism for that, he has been a refreshing balance regarding issues between Greece/Cyprus and Turkey. Unfortunately, under Biden I expect things to go back to where they were-favoring Turkey at the expense of Greece. Erdogan’s ham-handed handling of events in the near east will be overlooked once more and we’ll be back to the same old disappointing policies out of Washington DC. This was predictable in event of a Biden win, but that didn’t prevent the majority of Greek American voters to support his ticket. What can you do?