The naval war in
Mediterranean waters is getting hotter by the day. Will there be war?
Wait and see.
What is really happening between Greece and Turkey is not anything new. Turkey is involved in Iraq with PKK. Turkey is in Syria, in Libya, and now in Greece. The problem is this.
Turkey is operating under 1982 Maritime Laws trying to protect its coastline and its economic rights under these internationally accepted norms and will not step back.
On the other hand, for the
last twenty years Greece has been using a map they drew where they claim the Aegean
Sea and Eastern Mediterranean as their property. They believe it is theirs and
the map gives no room to Turkey.
Example: according to this Greek map if Turkey wants to send a ship from Istanbul to Antalya, a Turkish port city on the Mediterranean Sea, it must ask permission from Greece. This is the logic according to the Greeks.
Example: the Greek island of
Meis is located two kilometers from the coastline of Turkey and 580 kilometers
from the mainland of Greece. According to the Greeks their island has 200 miles
of sea rights. In other words their sea rights extend two hundred miles from Meis
into the Mediterranean Sea. They refuse to follow international law which
recognizes only six miles of ocean from the mainland and islands belong to them.
By law they cannot claim more than that.
Turkey will not even consider
having a dialogue with Greece about this matter.
Turkey rightfully declared a
Navtex (Navtex meaning it declares that international ships not to cross the
area) for its shoreline and sent its drilling ship with the protection of six
frigates and warships.
The Greeks declared a Navtex in the same area where the Turks are conducting seismic exploration.
Turkey does not recognize such an absurd claim but the Greeks still live with their ancient Greek mentality. They live in a dream world and whenever the Greek government is in trouble it activates this Greek nationality card, thus making Turkey the enemy.
Similarly, Armenians follow
the same politics by lobbying and pushing money trying to corrupt newcomer
senators and M.P’s in different countries. Their goal is to have laws passed in
these different countries that declare the so-called Armenian Genocide as fact.
This is just another loser
pipe dream trying to get Turkey to accept that the Ottomans committed genocide.
They have no proof of this, but they keep trying. They too are living in a dream
world.
In order to declare genocide the Armenians must prove to the UN there are undisputed facts and these facts must be argued by international lawyers. Armenians know that they don’t have any proof and they are unwilling to open their archives and confront the truth. They want easy money and compensation from Turkey.
Greece was formed in 1870 by
three generals; an Englishman, a Frenchman, and a Russian. This occurred during
the time the Ottoman Empire was in decline with the purpose of controlling the
Turks rather than expanding as the Ottomans did. Later on Greece did gain
islands in the Aegean Sea and during WWI they gained the Thrace section.
Greeks have always been supported by the EU. Since the trillions of cubic meters of natural gas were found in the Eastern Mediterranean, Greece, Southern Cyprus, Israel, Lebanon and Egypt formed an alliance excluding Turkey. Yet Turkey has the longest Mediterranean coastline.
Because of the gas every
vulture in the world has warships in the Eastern Mediterranean including the U.S.,
France, England, Germany, and Russia. Even China is vying for a piece of the
pie. All these countries have no business in the Mediterranean. Yet they formed
an alliance to exclude Turkey from the riches of natural gas.
That is the fight. It is nothing
but the continuation of the WWI scenario in which Turkey fought for its
independence and today’s Turkey was created.
Here is the kicker. Germany is
trying to encourage a dialogue between Greece and Turkey by telling the Turks
that the situation is very dangerous. Then EU member France sends two warships
and warplanes to Greece.
They play the good cop and
bad cop roles, but they are supporting Greece.
We shall see where this ends.
Not so long ago there was a Pentagon discussion about bringing two NATO allies
into a conflict, that being Greece and Turkey. If Turkey and Greece do start
war doesn’t that mean the end of NATO? And isn’t that exactly what Russia and
China want?
For the time being the U.S. is
playing a waiting game partly because of the elections. It does not want to get
involved like it has in the previous years when the Greeks and the Turks were
at each other’s throats.
Instead, the U.S. is using the United Arab Emirates. The UAE openly supports Greece and sent four F-16 war planes for military drills with Greece, France, and Italy. The UAE does not even have the capacity to do that but it takes orders from the U.S. In fact its pilots are foreigners and not even UAE nationals.
We shall see where we are
headed in the next week or so.
Behcet Kaya