The previous post was a critical assessment regarding Prime Minister Mitsotakis. This post looks at a more positive view of the Prime Minister. President Erdogan of Turkey has been fiercely denouncing Mitsotakis!
Being denounced by Erdogan makes the Greek Prime Minister look good. This blog’s fears that Mitsotakis will follow in the footsteps of other Greek leaders and make concessions to Turkey under American pressure could turn out to be unfounded. It is in fact to the credit of Mitsotakis that he asked Washington not to sell weaponry to Turkey.
This is what has infuriated Erdogan. Erdogan has attacked Mitsotakis in a very personal way that indicates he is crazy. Meanwhile, the leader of the Turkish Grey Wolves is demanding that the islands ceded to Greece by the Italians in 1947 be given to Turkey. The Turkish Foreign Minister demands that either the islands be demilitarized or Turkey will put forward claims on them.
In addition, Erdogan commemorated the fall of Constantinople by suggesting Turkey will defeat the new Byzantines (Greece). Athens has a real problem. Mitsotakis deserves credit for raising the issue of Turkey with the US.
We will see how things progress. Mitsotakis has the potential for greatness or disgrace and failure.
3 replies on “On The Other Hand”
I have great respect for Mitsotakis ability, he’s very nimble and quick on his feet. Compared to the ham-handed amateurism and asinine populism of SYRIZA, Mitsotaks has demonstrated statesmanship and effectiveness.
As a member of NATO, Greece’s ability to deviate from the NATO position on Ukraine is pretty limited. Greece has sent some armament to Ukraine, but mainly has supported Ukrainian refugees and earned great respect by doing so. Greece is pretty much limited by what they can do in opposition to the economic sanctions pushed by the western powers, Mitsotakis has walked a fine line. Don’t forget, Greek shipping companies are earning Billions of Dollars transporting goods for all nations-including shipping Russian petroleum and natural gas.
Greece’s main problem is they have a large, poor, strident Islamic nation right next door with a nutcase as President. Erdogan is your typical Middle Eastern strongman of limited intelligence but great cunning. He gins-up his supporters in Turkey by continually provoking his neighbors and not falling inline to great-power foreign policy. Turkey is not abiding by the economic sanctions against Russia currently and that has NOT been received well in the west.
With the NEOLIB warmongers controlling US foreign policy it’s going to be challenging for nations like Greece to navigate all the challenges. Still, Mitsotakis has proven to be a chess master and Erdogan a bull in a China shop. And Mitsotakis recognizes he has friends in the US Congress and this is an election year in USA-he is not without tools at his disposal. To date, he’s used them successfully in my view. Would you rather have Greece’s record of success-economically and in foreign policy-the last 4-5 years or Turkey’s? The proof is in the pudding.
I want to like Mitsotakis. And he is admittedly the best choice for Greece. But read the following article
https://greekcitytimes.com/2022/05/28/turkish-and-azeri-special-forces/
He is removing weapons from Greece to send to Ukraine! If true this is madness.
Greece is sending old Russian-made IFV (infantry fighting vehicles) to Ukraine from Greek Army stocks. These are antiquated vehicles which are going to be replaced (for free, essentially) with modern Marder IFV’s out of German Army stock (they’ve been reducing the size of their forces). Greece gets far newer, more modern, more capable IFV’s for sending the old IFV’s to Ukraine. Whether Greece should be sending arms at all to Ukraine is another point of discussion and I’m not entirely supportive of that. But as a member of NATO Greece has to do what the majority of NATO nations determine. At least as far as how it impacts Greece, it will result in a net IMPROVEMENT in Greek capability so it’s all good. Really, there are three military factors at the current time that Greece needs to have superiority over Turkey-Aircraft, AA missile technology and submarines. Greece currently has superiority in all three areas over Turkey and is acquiring increased superiority in jet aircraft as they have purchased new Dassault Rafale fighters and are negotiating purchase of F-35 Lockheed-Martin fighters. Greece has sufficient capability to prevent any Turkish aggressive actions.