France’s Libération: Erdogan ramping up war threats against Greece

In an article entitled “Escalation. Turkey is showing its teeth to Greece, ” newspaper Libération notes that in view of the 2023 presidential elections and in the context of a galloping inflation, Turkish President Erdogan is making more threats of war against Greece.

“After Mitsotaki’s visit to the United States, Erdogan became nervous. But we [Greece]are not buying into this rhetorical game,” Tassos Hadjivassiliou, a New Democracy MP and the party’s international relations official, told the newspaper, noting that the Turkish president was “primarily addressing domestic public opinion.”

If this is one of Erdogan’s goals, another is the “pursuit of regional hegemony,” the paper said, adding that the occupation of northern Cyprus since 1974 or much of northern Syria and Iraq is proof of this.

The article explains the Turkish idea of ​​the “Blue Homeland” and citing a diplomatic source notes that the memorandum on the delimitation of maritime zones that Turkey signed with the government of the Libyan National Accord in November 2019, goes against the Law of the Sea.”

“Deep down, Erdogan is trying to provide a legal framework for his idea of ​​a Blue Homeland. He believes that, at the moment, with the conflict in Ukraine, the role he is playing there [ie the conflict] and the precedent created by the Russians, he has an opportunity to promote his illegal position,” Tassos Hadjivassiliou stated to the newspaper, pointing out that Greece is “the guarantor of stability and democracy in the region.”