When Greece toughens its stance against Turkey, Every Greek feels very good
rick murphy
When Greece toughens its stance against Turkey, Every Greek feels very
good
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Greece talks about toughening stance against Turkey
Monday, July 27, 2009
ARIANA FERENTINOU
Cold winds are blowing from Athens. Athens sees an increased number of
over flights in the Aegean by the Turkish air force as a violation of
its air space. It also sees the move by Ankara to launch oil
exploration in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean, as another sign
of hostile policies towards Greece as well as Greek Cyprus
If everything goes according to what she has declared so far, during
the first meeting under Swedish Presidency of the Council on General
Affairs and External Relations of the European Union, which is taking
place today in Brussels, Greek Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis is
determined to make a strong issue out of Ankara’s policies over the
Aegean.
“We believe that our EU partners must have full knowledge of all the
facts, in order to be able to evaluate Turkey, now that Turkey enters
a phase of evaluation,” she stated in Chania, Crete, adding that
Greece exercises a foreign policy “with the self-confidence and self-
assurance of an old member of the union”.
But her tone was even stricter when assessing the political balances
in Turkey:
“Turkey, today, goes through a painful procedure of Europeanization,
in a sense, it could even be called a historic (phase). I understand
the political, social and economic processes in a country of the size,
the geographical position and the history of Turkey … I also
understand the internal political realities and the struggle of Mr.
Erdogan,” she explained in an exclusive interview to the
Eleftherotypia newspaper where she gave important hints about the
stance that Greece is planning to adopt during the crucial period of
Swedish presidency.
It was in that interview that in a perhaps not-so-diplomatic tone,
Mrs. Bakoyannis delivered a strong warning to Erdogan's government
which, by the way, is itself a frequent user of “strong language”
diplomacy.
“There is no room for bravados (she actually used the Turkish rooted
word “dayilik”) in the EU”, she said but balanced it by also pointing
out “and I am saying this, as an old friend of the Turkish people and
a strong supporter of the European course of Turkey. ….Full adjustment-
full entry.” But when asked whether the recent tension in the
bilateral relationships would be a reason for her to cancel her trip
to Ankara –after the invitation of her Turkish counterpart Mr.
Davutoglu-, she kept the door ajar. “As you know our relations with
Turkey are multidimensional, our dialogue is continuous even if our
positions are diametrically differently….I have already responded
positively to the invitation and I will pay this visit …in order for
it to be beneficial and productive,” she said.
There is no doubt that colder winds are blowing now from Athens.
Athens sees an increased number of over flights in the Aegean by the
Turkish air force as a violation of its air space. It also sees the
move by Ankara to launch oil exploration in the Aegean and Eastern
Mediterranean, as another sign of hostile policies towards Greece as
well as Greek Cyprus. Ankara on the other hand wants to discuss the
whole range of outstanding issues with Greece as one package. Greece
does not accept there is one. In spite of the ongoing discussion by
the appointed “wise men” committee there has not been so far a clearly
defined strategy-and political will- for both countries take one step
forward.
This year has not been an exception so far, in spite of the fact that
it will be the termination of the period the EU granted to Turkey in
order to adjust its policies to the EU acquis. High expectations
created after president’s Obama visit to Turkey that a formula might
be found for the re-opening of the Halki Seminary, appear to have been
stalled, at least for the moment. The recent negotiations for a
solution in Cyprus were meant to be an ‘open ended” process “until a
solution was found”. During a recent visit by the Turkish Cypriot
leader in Ankara, President Gül expressed Turkey’s wish that “the
negotiations to be over by the end of the year”, a wish expressed also
by Talat. The Greek Cypriot side is disturbed and Christofias is
receiving a barrage of criticism by his opposition. At the same time,
Ankara is trying to impress the Europeans through the Nabucco project
showing Turkey as an alternative major energy hub for the region.
But it is not only the “erratic” behavior of Turkey that has increased
the frustration of Karamanlis government. It is –perhaps more
seriously- the fact that since the beginning of the year the Greek
government, surviving by the majority of just one deputy- has been
under immense fire by the opposition to go for early elections “to
clear the mess of corruption, incompetence and mishandling of the
economy”.
The recent Euro-elections showed a further drop in its popularity but
did not prove to be a “roll over” victory for the main opposition of
socialist PASOK part as expected. Instead, the nationalist-ultra right
of LAOS with a charismatic leader who once belonged to the governing
party of New Democracy, picked a surprising number of votes by pushing
policies which included “control of illegal immigrants”, “quotas on
immigrants”, increase of policing etc. and, as expected, a “special
relationship ”with Turkey in the EU.
One of the most TV-visible LAOS deputies Mr. Kyriakos Velopoulos even
suggested an interesting solution to the Greek-Turkish problems.
“Shooting down a Turkish F-16 over our Aegean perhaps would have
stopped Turkey,” he said during an interview published yesterday in
the Greek weekly newspaper RealNews. His analysis suggests that when
Turkey has domestic problems it resorts to aggressive policies abroad;
a coup in Turkey would not be a surprise for Mr. Velopoulos, who also
thinks that Turkey might prefer a special relationship with the EU in
order to have “a free hand in the Aegean” which incidentally has oil,
otherwise why should Turkey look for it!
The critics of the Greek government accuse it of having become a
hostage of LAOS. At any rate the leader of LAOS Yorgo Karatzaferis
insists that the two parties “are neighbors in the same apartment
block”. Certainly commentators have pointed out that the recent loud
protestations of the Greek government against Turkey in the EU
platform over the problem of illegal immigrants had something to do
with the fiery speeches by the LAOS deputies on the issue.
Mr. Velopoulos does not understand how there can be a gradual
improvement in the relations between Greece and Turkey “given the
aggressive attitude of our neighbor”; he does not even exclude the
possibility of a war.
One might think that a “Greek-Turkish war” scenario coming from an
ultra right nationalist party is not surprising bearing in mind that
this party is attacking a conservative government for not showing
enough “patriotism”.
But a milder version of this came at the same time from the socialist
main opposition. George Papandreou whose main political platform has
been to attack the government on domestic inefficiencies, came out on
Saturday with a sudden prediction of an “increased tension” totally
worked out by Ankara and advised the government not to take advantage
of it. “The government should not try to benefit from such a
possibility in its effort to divert the attention from its adverse
political situation and fall into the trap of the intensification (of
tension)”, he said talking to his party foreign policy strategists.
Commentators believe that Mr. Papandreou is worried in case Karamanlis
goes for an early election in order to benefit from the “tension with
Turkey”. Of course, such a position could not escape from Mrs.
Bakoyannis: “I would have expected more responsibility from the leader
of the opposition. It is unthinkable that a political leader and
indeed someone who has served as a Foreign minister to speak of the
government benefiting from a “hot incident”, she said.
There is no doubt that the latter part of the year which coincides
with the Swedish presidency will bring the Turkish question again to
the front stage. On a regional context, the policies and the attitude
of Ankara may influence political developments in Greece depending on
how much Athens believes that it can use the Turkey card in order to
recover its low credibility at home.
choro
Greek LAOS leader Yorgo Karatzaferis is the Greek equivalent of Jean-Marie
Le Pen, the fascist politician in France.
Whenever I hear the name Karatzferis I can't help wondering whenever he is a
half cast as it could be of
Albanian or even of Turkish origin.
Kara certainly means black in Turkish and Tzaferis (with the obligatory -ris
ending in Greek) is actually the Greek transliteration of the Albanian or
Turkish name Cafer (pronounced Jafer which becomes Tsafer or Tzafer in Greek
transliteration as the Greek alphabet does not contain the J sound of the
English alphabet which sounds the same as the letter C of the Turkish
alphabet.
This C or J sound in Turkish names is sometimes transliterated as Dj to aid
the proper pronunciation of such names by speakers of English as they tend
to pronounce the letter C in the Turkish alphabet as a K in English thus
mispronouncing such names.
In any case, I tend to believe that it would be interesting to dig into the
family history of this super fascist Karatzaferis or do a DNA analysis of
his blood. He might learn a thing or two about his family history. But then
it is such half castes who become the such extremist nationalists and
fascists. Strange how psychology works!!!
--
choro
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