Turkish President Erdogan has criticized the Republican People’s Party for “losing” the Greek islands that are off the Turkish coast. The Republican People’s Party was the party that was founded by the murderous dictator and general Mustafa Kemal Pasha. Kemal was responsible for conquering territories that had been lost to the Ottoman Empire in 1918 including Constantinople (occupied by the western powers), Smyrna and other lands liberated by Greece, and independent Armenia.
The forcible reconquest of all these territories was carried out through genocide and ethnic cleansing. Only with the deliberate murder and forcible expulsions of the native Christian populations was it possible for Kemal to reclaim these lands for the successor state to the Ottoman Empire that he subsequently created. At the Lausanne Conference of 1923, Kemal practically dictated the terms of “peace” between his own movement and Greece.
Despite Kemal’s conquests of all these territories, Turks like Erdogan remain unsatisfied. Erdogan openly covets the Greek islands that are near the Asia minor coast despite the fact that the populations of these islands are overwhelmingly Greek and have been Hellenic for many centuries before the Turks ever showed up. Turkey today could only take these islands through genocide and ethnic cleansing.
Erdogan would not be the only Turkish leader to advocate genocide and territorial expansionism at the expense of Greece. Kemal of course is the most notorious practitioner of genocide (along with the Young Turks who preceded him). Another leader of the Republican People’s Party, Bulent Ecevit ordered the invasion and occupation of Cyprus in 1974 which led to the ethnic cleansing of 200,000 Greek Cypriots. For Erdogan, Kemal and Ecevit were much too soft on the Greeks.
It is very clear that Erdogan is a psychopath and an extreme narcissist. Greece and Cyprus need to be fully prepared to defend themselves and their native populations from Turkish aggression. Fortunately, Prime Minister Mitsotakis seems to be prepared for the difficult road ahead. For the first time in decades, Greece has a government that is competent in both foreign affairs and in domestic affairs.
The successful handing of the coronavirus epidemic in Greece has won Greece good will and the Prime Minister has a good reputation with a good deal of political and diplomatic sophistication (in contrast to his predecessor). Mitsotakis has been standing up to Turkey over the matter of the continental shelf and has won the backing of Egypt, Israel, the European Union, and the United States (although it is unclear how far American support will go). Mitsotakis could become another Venizelos if he continues to succeed in building up international support against Erdogan’s genocidal ambitions.
3 replies on “Erdogan’s genocidal ambitions”
He’s doubling down on his idiocy: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/turkeys-erdogan-converts-another-former-church-into-mosque/ar-BB18dWO1#:~:text=Turkey%27s%20Erdogan%20converts%20another%20former%20church%20into%20mosque,Turkey%27s%20tensions%20with%20Greece%20and%20its%20Orthodox%20Church.
Another conversion at the same time as he is provoking a conflict with Greece. He is a classic narcissist that is simply incapable of recognizing the rights of others. Tragic as these conversions of Churches is the fact is that Greece has finally found her voice and all this helps Greece and Cyprus internationally.
It certainly has reflected poorly on Turkey and their current regime. Erdogan must be feeling the political heat from his rapidly depreciating currency, the cost of living in Turkey, high unemployment and only today Fitch Credit Agency lowered Turkey’s rating to BB-. That impacts the cost of borrowing for Turkey at a time when they have no foreign exchange reserves to borrow with. Erdogan must be dying the death of a thousand cuts these days and fearing for his parties election chances.