In recent days, the contradiction between Greek and Türkiye is heating up sharply.
Last Tuesday, Türkiye tested the domestic short-range ballistic missile Tayfun over Black Sea . Turkish media emphasized: This missile can strike any place in Greece . The reason why they "named" is because the two sides are quarreling over territorial disputes and the situation is at a loss.
Let’s first introduce the reason for this round of conflict.
In early September, Erdogan, known as the " Middle East strongman", suddenly made a harsh statement, claiming that "when it is actually mature, Turkey will do the necessary things" and "we can suddenly take action one night" . Everything revolves around the Cyprus issue , and this island country is the center of the territorial dispute between Turkey and Greece.
Simply put, this island country is mainly composed of Greeks and Turkish people. However, the conflicts between the two sides have led to the division of the country. In order to safeguard the interests of their own people, Turkey and Greece have caused many wars to attack on the island, and it is still maintaining a situation where is divided between the north and the south.
Among them, the northern region supported by the Turkish troops was established, the so-called " Northern Cyprus Turkish Republic " was established. Obviously, Erdogan's "subtext" is to launch another action in Cyprus to completely "annex" the southern Republic of Cyprus .
Faced with such a threat, Greek Prime Minister Mitsotakis responded strongly on September 11 that if Erdogan takes the initiative to launch an attack, then "Turkey will be hit back with an absolutely devastating blow" , because has "no foothold of the imperial vision and no foothold of potential regional bullies" in the 21st century.
But the question is, is Erdogan really making trouble? This is a matter of opinion.
The reason is very simple. Greece has been deploying military equipment on several islands near the Turkish mainland Aegean . For example, at the end of September, it deployed 23 American armored vehicles on Lesvos , and 18 on Samos , of which is less than 1 nautical mile away from Turkey.
Because of this incident, the already tense relationship between the two sides began to heat up sharply.
So, on September 26, Türkiye sent an drone , which flew over at an altitude of 19,000 feet from the ground to Greece's remote island in the southeast of the Aegean Sea. After the incident, Greece's fighter urgently identified and intercepted it, and similar things can only be regarded as "common" in the near future.
The most interesting thing is that on October 21 local time, the Greek police also found 92 illegal immigrants who illegally crossed the border with Turkey, most of which came from Afghanistan and Syria . At that time, these illegal immigrants were not in a hurry and did not carry any supplies.
It is obvious that this is the result of Turkey deliberately "releasing" , because according to the agreement between Turkey and EU , Turkey has been blocking Middle East refugees from entering EU member states, and from Turkey to Greece and then to other EU member states is a regular route.
Therefore, whenever Turkey and EU member states, especially Greece, will relax border controls and allow refugees to enter the EU, so that threatens Greece and the EU to submit to with the "refugee crisis".
In view of this, the Greek side, which is plagued by the refugee crisis, has accused Turkey of the Greek Minister of Immigration and Asylum, claiming that Greece has treated 92 immigrants, and proves that Turkey is a "shame of civilization" . But Turkish did not care. Erdogan's spokesperson said: is a baseless accusation.
Speaking of this, let’s talk about 3 points briefly.
First, Türkiye's recent dissatisfaction with the West is intensifying.
On the 21st local time, Turkish Foreign Minister Cavusoglu also "yelled" to the United States, claiming that the United States should stop threatening Saudi Arabia on the issue of oil prices, and this inappropriate "bullying" behavior should stop in time and seek solutions to the problem, such as lifting the embargo order for other oil-producing countries.
's remarks are hard not to suspect that they are speaking for Russia, but this is actually not important. The key is that Turkey's various statements on issues such as the Russian-Ukrainian conflict have successfully attracted the attention of the international community, and has also achieved the goal of enhancing Türkiye's international influence.
Don’t forget that Erdogan’s political ideal is to restore the glory of Ottoman Empire .
Second, does Erdogan have "selfish intentions"? The answer is yes.
In 2023, Erdogan will face elections again, and of course he wants to fight for re-election. But the current situation in Turkey is not good. The inflation rate in September has set a record high in nearly 24 years - 80%. It has always been a common method for politicians to divert people's attention from economic issues through territorial disputes.
In fact, according to the latest poll data, 51.5 Turks believe that "Turkish tensions are just actions taken by Turkish politicians to win the election", and 64% of Turks do not think that the Greeks are their enemies.
Third, through the appearance of the Turkish-Greece dispute, there is actually Türkiye’s dissatisfaction with the hegemony of the United States and the West.
It should be pointed out that US Ambassador to Turkey Jeff Flake once posted on Tuesday that United States is committed to maintaining justice in the Turkish-Greece dispute, and Washington 's top priority is still "peace, security and stability throughout the region."
After all, the Biden administration hopes that NATO allies can maintain unity during the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, but Türkiye has clearly become an "unwelcome interference" in the eyes of the United States.
On October 13, Erdogan also met with Russian President . Putin . The two sides recently reached a consensus on to establish a natural gas transit station in Turkey. The latter offset to a certain extent the adverse impact of the United States' destruction of the "North Stream" natural gas pipeline and differentiation of Russia-Europe relations.
In short, the Turkish-Greece dispute is just a microcosm of the conflict between Türkiye and the United States and the West, and a greater conflict will break out between the two sides sooner or later.
