* Turkey is re-entering, step by step, the Western defense market .
France and Turkey recently signed a “roadmap” for their defense cooperation . It is not a defense assistance treaty. It is not something analogous to the Greek-French agreement of 2021. It does not “obligate” France to defend Turkey militarily.
So let’s not exaggerate.
But let’s not underestimate it either…
Eurofighters are advancing. Meteors , the French air-to-air missiles, are making their way towards Turkey.
And Turkey is gradually re-entering the Western defense industry chain .
Not without obstacles…
He didn’t get the F-35s .
The 40 American F-16 Block 70s are delayed.
The 79 American packages to upgrade old F-16s to Viper were approved by Congress , but Ankara then withdrew this American solution and chose to proceed with the upgrade with its own capabilities.
The American F110 engines for the KAAN have finally been released. But they are not an “upgrade”. And the Turkish engine is not expected before the beginning of the next decade.
The SAMP/T anti-aircraft continues to meet French objections .
In other words, Turkey did not win everything.
But it is gaining ground .
And that’s the important thing.
Because every time he encounters an obstacle , he doesn’t give up .
It’s pressing.
He negotiates.
He’s changing direction.
He is looking for another solution.
It over-promotes and then maximizes its “geopolitical value” .
And he waits for the right moment.
This is how countries that want to become regional powers operate.
Greece , on the contrary, has taken on a strange role: explaining to others that Turkey is… “our friend” .
* The “Athens Declaration” of December 2023 is not a treaty or a legally binding agreement. It is a political declaration of friendship and good neighborliness .
And that was exactly the problem.
Because diplomacy is not judged solely by the legal content of texts.
It is also judged by the messages you send .
And the message we sent then was clear:
Turkey is our “friend”!
While it constantly creates new faits accomplis and ceaselessly escalates the challenges against us .
Since we say that, despite everything, “Turkey is our friend,” why shouldn’t others believe it too?
Why do the French think there is a problem when discussing the sale of weapons to Turkey ?
Why are the Germans hesitant to sell Eurofighter ?
And, most importantly, why should the countries of the region, which have their own problems with Turkey, consider Greece a “natural ally” towards it?
We ourselves tell them not to expect anything from us.
* And here lies the responsibility of government policy .
It is not wrong to “talk” with Turkey . Anyway, there are multiple channels of communication between us.
It is not wrong to seek de-escalation .
It is wrong to call behavior that is not friendly “friendly”!
And sending the wrong message everywhere…
Because Turkey’s behavior towards Greece is not the behavior of a “friend” .
And this must be said calmly, clearly and unequivocally .
In every direction…
* But there is something else.
And this must be said in Europe again and again.
Turkey threatens two member states of the European Union , Greece and Cyprus . And it illegally occupies the territory of one member state : Cyprus…
How is it possible, then, that Europe is arming Turkey and at the same time talking about “European strategic autonomy” ?
How can it want to become “defensively independent” – when it alone becomes defensively “non-existent” ?
When member states are threatened by a third country and other member states arm the third country, geopolitically there is no European Union .
This is what Greece must proclaim.
In every European council .
At every Summit .
In NATO .
At the United Nations .
Everywhere.
In order for the European Union to become strategically autonomous , it must first exist . And by arming Turkey at a time when Turkey is threatening its member states, Europe is self-defeating .
This does not only concern Greece and Cyprus.
It concerns Europe as a whole.
It is not a “cry of anguish” from Greece to Europe.
It is a “bell” for Europe as a whole .
* And then there is the third, the obvious one.
Greece must rediscover its natural allies in the region .
Israel .
Egypt .
The United Arab Emirates .
Eastern Libya .
India .
Tell them clearly:
Greece is a frontline country against Turkish expansionism-revisionism . It is not a “friend” of Turkish policy.
This does not mean that Greece’s policy should become “anti-Turkish”,,,
It means that it must finally become Greek!
To defend her interests .
To exploit its potential alliances .
To create new ones.
To give others a reason to rely on Greece.
Because today the exact opposite is happening:
When Athens proclaims that Turkey is its “friend”, it disappoints those who have reason to fear Turkey .
And it encourages other countries to deal directly with Ankara.
Why should Cairo invest more in Athens , when Athens itself assures that its relations with Ankara are “relations of friendship” ?
We have reached the paradox of Netanyahu defending, at the United Nations , Greece and Cyprus against Turkish provocations with greater clarity than that demonstrated by the Greek diplomatic missions themselves.
This is not foreign policy. It is self-undermining.
* And it’s not the first time.
— In Libya , Turkey entered dynamically and changed the relationship .
France had common interests with us at that time.
Egypt and the Emirates too.
Eastern Libya too.
We;
We characterized Haftar , who was resisting Turkish penetration, as “a piece of paper” and “finished” .
Eventually the French stopped the Turkish penetration into Libya with the help of Egypt and the Emirates.
Then Turkey opened up to Haftar (whose lights our own had “finished”). Now Haftar’s son has found a way with Egypt and Israel. And we are simply absent . Because everyone counts us as “friends” of Turkey …
— France had proposed a defense assistance agreement to us and it took us over a year to respond .
Ultimately, it took the French submarine crisis with Australia to pave the way for the Belharra and the Greek-French agreement . From “spontaneous”…
We were waiting for the opportunity. The opportunity passed us by. And we almost missed it…
And then we declared our “friendship” towards Turkey and canceled everything…
We hesitate and struggle !
Turkey is not waiting.
That’s the big problem…
* We don’t need to overestimate Turkey.
We must stop underestimating Greece!
Because Greece is the only country in the region that belongs to both NATO and the EU .
It has a dominant naval position in the Eastern Mediterranean .
It has energy, commercial and strategic potential .
He has opportunities.
Much more than it uses.
And this is, perhaps, our biggest difference with Turkey.
Turkey encounters obstacles and tries to overcome them .
We encounter opportunities and often let them pass us by .
She is pushing .
We reassure .
She claims .
We explain why we are “good guys” – in a modern, turbulent world where no one pays attention to “good guys” anymore…
She builds influence .
We declare “friendship” with those who threaten us !
She wants to become a regional power .
We hesitate, lest claiming our own role might bother someone.
This must end!
* Greece does not need to become aggressive.
She needs to be present. And reliable …
He doesn’t need to look for enemies.
She needs to recognize her real friends .
He doesn’t need to cut bridges with Turkey.
It needs to stop paving the way for Turkey alone .
Because Turkey will continue to press.
He will continue to search for weapons.
It will continue to exploit the contradictions of the great powers .
He will continue to claim.
And if we continue to call
“friendship” the retreat ,
“stability” inertia
and “success” the absence of crisis ,
At some point we will discover something very unpleasant:
Turkey will have become a regional hegemon — and we will have reduced ourselves to an observer of our own nonexistence .
Together with the non-existence of Europe…
Opportunities are not lost all at once.
They are disappearing one by one.
Until there are no more.
And then it will be too late .
* The “Athens Agreement” which has now definitively failed ,
– but it has not yet been definitively abandoned – it is not an isolated incident.
It is another symptom of the decline of the political system , which Antonis Samaras also spoke about yesterday.
Greece buys Belharra and Rafale , but at the same time it renounces the defense of its sovereign rights (it sets the “red line” at 6 miles! ) and proclaims its… “friendship” with those who encroach on them. At the same time it is washing Turkey away , so that it can also arm itself with weapons systems that it was not previously given.
Greece is canceling its Deterrence and is constantly disappointing its potential allies in the region.
Greece is not even exploiting its potential
nor the opportunities presented to her .
Neither economically, nor diplomatically, nor geopolitically.
* And if we go even deeper: In Greece, the political system does not represent the country abroad, but the “Foreign” within the country!
It does not build alliances against a common enemy.
He is looking for protectors! Who appear increasingly reluctant…
And he neither wants to inspire nor represent the Greeks.
He simply seeks to “control” them .
And that’s why it disappoints more and more people.
To control them on behalf of a “Western policy” that is either deeply divided or strongly contested within Western countries.
Greece could be the “bulwark” of Europe and the West in the region – and it is becoming its “Achilles heel” .
And Europe could be the “engine” of Western influence in the world – and it is close to becoming the “black hole” of the West .
Whatever else happens next to us or around us,
Greece must stand on its own two feet.
and stop the downward spiral of Decline …
And maybe this way we can really help the real Europe.
But for now we have to save ourselves .
It is more “urgent” than we imagine and less “impossible” than they try to convince us.
