By George Gilson

Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias has sent a letter to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell – and another letter was delivered to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, signed by Greece’s UN Ambassador Maria Theofili – and in both Athens stresses the dangers and urgency of confronting Turkey’s escalation of provocations against fellow NATO member-state Greece.

There has been a record number of of Turkish violations of Greek airspace and territorial waters so far this year, and Dendias stresses this, as well as Ankara’s laying claim counter to international law to dozens of Aegean Greek islands and islets, in remarks after meetings with all foreign counterparts.

Erdogan’s, top Turkish officials’ inflammatory rhetoric

In a joint press conference after a meeting in Athens yesterday with French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna, Dendias underlined that, “On a daily basis, Turkish officials make outrageous statements against Greece, the Greek people, and the Greek government.”

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other top officials have repeatedly declared that Ankara can throw the Greeks into the water, as they did in the 1922 Asia Minor catastrophe, the 100th anniversary of which is this year, when Turkish troops routed Greek forces in Asia Minor and totally burned down the prosperous, cosmopolitan city of Smyrna (Izmir today), which had a very large and affluent Greek population. The Turkish and Jewish quarters were spared.

Erdogan shuts the door on bilateral talks, threatens invasion of Greek island

Most recently, after a 5 July cabinet meeting, Erdogan appeared to shut the door on bilateral talks that could lead to some kind of understanding with a blatant insult against Greece.

“Greece is not our equal, either politically, militarily, or economically. For that reason, it cannot be our interlocutor,” he said.

Dendias stressed, in his joint press conference with his French counterpart, that this year there has been a record number of 6,100 Turkish violations of Greek airspace, 157 flights of war planes over Greek islands, and 1,000 violations of Greek territorial waters.

Dendias also noted that on the day of Colonna’s visit, Erdogan once again declared that Turkish forces can “come at night” to land on and occupy any Greek Aegean island that Ankara believes should be stripped of its defensive military forces, based on provisions in the Treaty of Lausanne.

The German daily Bild, in a headline, wrote that “Turkey threatens Greece with war”.

The decades-long, continual Turkish threat in the Aegean

Turkey on the Eastern coast of Anatolia, a stone’s throw away from Greece’s Aegean islands, has amassed the largest landing force in Europe, and its huge “Aegean Army”, formed in 1975 on the heels of Ankara’s invasion and occupation of Cyprus, with an estimated 130,000 active personnel, constitutes a perpetual threat to the security of the Greek islands

Dendias’ letter comes straight on the heels of a 1 September letter sent by Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu to the same international organisations in which he presents a list of complaints against Greece, accusing Athens of violations of international law in the Aegean and claiming, despite Turkey’s barrage of violations of Greek sovereign rights in the region and Erdogan’s recent rejection of talks, that it is Turkey and not Athens that seeks dialogue.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has said that Greece wants to hold talks with Turkey, but only on the condition that Ankara ceases its provocations and that the discussion is conducted on the basis of international law.

Turkey’s international diplomatic blitz against Greece, Cavusoglu’s letter

Turkey’s new and intense international diplomatic blitz against Greece was inaugurated by allegations, which Athens has rejected, that Greek fighter jets on 25 August harassed and locked on to Turkish warplanes, engaging in a NATO exercise, over the Aegean.

Days later, Athens dismissed as “a false provocation” Ankara’s claim that Greece’s S-300 missile systems, stationed in Crete, in a “hostile act”, had locked on to Turkish fighter jets conducting an exercise in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean.

The Turkish media unleashed a barrage of criticism against Greece, claiming that since the Russian S-300 missile systems stationed in Crete have been activated and locked on to Turkish fighter jets, Turkey should in turn activate its S-400 missile systems, the purchase of which led to a major fallout between Ankara and Washington.

Cavusoglu’s letter to international organisations

The Turkish daily Sabah, in a report on Cavusoglu’s letter to international organisations, indicated that the stated that Greece’s positions are untenable as regards the extent of its territorial waters and national airspace.

Cavusoglu said that Greece is the only country in the world the territorial waters and airspace of which do not coincide, as stipulated in international law.

Greece claims 6nm of territorial waters but 10 of airspace.

The letter also reiterated that a number of Greece’s Eastern Aegean islands must be demilitarised, and that many Greek islets are of undetermined sovereignty.

“Moreover, the letter stressed that there are islands, islets and rocks and service areas, such as search and rescue region (SRR), flight information region (FIR) and NAVTEX, whose sovereignty has not been transferred to Greece via valid international agreements,” Sabah quote the letter as stating.

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