Turkey’s Vice President Fuat Oktay and Defence Minister Hulusi Akar launched a barrage of threats toward Greece this week, as tensions between the two countries remain high.
Defence Minister Hulusi Akar stated Friday that Greece should not undergo “new adventures” in the region while marking the 100th anniversary of an attack by Turkish forces on the Greeks in 1922 by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
“In these days when we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the great victory, we say clearly to Greece that, you saw how painful was the price of the adventure that began a century ago. We strongly recommend that you learn from history and avoid new adventures that will lead to disappointment,” he said, newspaper Ekathimerini reports.
Following after Akar, Vice President Fuat Oktay also threatened Greece, saying: “On the centenary, when such a powerful Turkey exists, as it does within the ‘Blue Homeland’, can those that recklessly and illegally fight display the same courage? The Greek, then as now, does not have courage. Not the Greek nor anyone else.”
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The ‘Blue Homeland’ expansionist doctrine referenced by Vice President Oktay was developed several years ago by Turkish admiral Cem Gurdeniz and refers to areas in the Eastern Mediterranean and Aegean Sea that are considered by Greece as part of its territory.
“Those who covet and target the democracy, stability, and the interests of Turkey in the area, are they really aware of the consequences they face?” Oktay went on, adding: “those who are envious, both within and outside our country, will be thrown into the sea… Let no one doubt this.”
Tensions between Turkey and Greece have been at a high level for several years as Turkey has threatened to open the gates to Europe for migrants and briefly did so in 2020, before the Chinese coronavirus pandemic derailed the scheme.
The latest tensions between the two NATO “allies” have largely revolved around natural resource exploration and Turkish claims that Greece is militarizing the Aegean islands.
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